Photo credit: sacbee.com

By Jeremy Harness

SACRAMENTO — The Golden 1 Center was half-empty on Thursday, and the brave souls who showed up probably wished they had not.

The Sacramento Kings sure didn’t. They were smacked around in every way imaginable right from the opening tip-off in a 132-93 drubbing at the hands of the Utah Jazz, the team’s first home preseason game against an NBA opponent.

Let’s put it this way: The Kiss-Cam got more applause than the Kings did.

The boo birds, as well as the occasional shout of “you suck” started midway through the second quarter. It only intensified after a Rudy Gobert fast-break dunk gave the Jazz a 62-29 lead. The booing did cease, however, in the second half, possibly due to either a strong sense of resignation or a general lack of interest.

The majority of Utah’s field-goal attempts were uncontested, which explains why the Jazz converted 60 percent of them (51 of 85), including 14 of their 30 3-point shots. The Kings, meanwhile, were flat broke the entire game, starting with DeAaron Fox’s jumper from the free-throw line clanking off the base of the rim.

What followed were missed layups and other point-blank attempts as well as a complete lack of defense. Utah used the first 12 minutes of the game to get out to a 39-10 lead.

It got no better during the course of Thursday’s game. In fact, it got painfully worse. The Kings were a woeful 34 percent (32 of 93) from the floor.

Sacramento was losing it on the court, and it seemed to trickle down to the head coach, and that didn’t take very long. After calling a timeout upon Sacramento going down 32-7 late in the opening quarter, Dave Joerger waited exactly seven seconds–about the time it took for Sacramento to get the ball across half-court–to call another one.

The second quarter was simply an extension of the first. While going down 45-10 in the first two minutes of the quarter, Buddy Hield missed a wide-open fast-break layup and watched as the putback attempt got wedged in between the basket and the backboard. Meanwhile, the Jazz built up a 36-point halftime lead and led at one point by 44 points.

The Jazz were led by Rudy Gobert, who caught numerous alley-oops for dunks and put in a few more uncontested attempts on his way to 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting.

Rookie Marvin Bagley III, whom the Kings selected with the second pick of this year’s draft, scored 17 points and pulled down eight rebounds. Willie Cauley-Stein had 16 points, but he was manhandled by Utah big man Rudy Gobert in the process. Harry Giles III and Justin Jackson each scored 12 points for Sacramento.

NOTES: It’s probably not a good sign when Skal Labissiere–who was a first-round pick just two years ago–doesn’t see his first action of the game until the start of the fourth quarter, after the Kings had been trailing by at least 20 since the opening minutes of the game.

Ben McLemore, who was part of the trade that sent guard–and proven leader–Garrett Temple to the Memphis Grizzlies, did not get into the game until the fourth quarter as well.

UP NEXT: The Kings head up north to the Moda Center to take on the Portland Trail Blazers in their final preseason game Friday night at 7:00 pm PT on NSNW.