Sacramento (USA), May 16 (EFE) .- The point guard Jordan Clarkson was once again the leading scorer of the Utah Jazz by scoring 33 points and the French center Rudy Gobert, the best in the inside game, with a double-double with 13 points and 16 rebounds, which led to a 99-121 road win over the Sacramento Kings.
The victory allowed the Jazz to finish with the best record in the Western Conference and in the league (52-20), being from start to finish the best team in the NBA during the regular season, despite suffering important losses such as star guard Donovan Mitchell due to injury in the final stretch of the competition.
Utah won its last two to beat Western Conference rival Phoenix Suns for first place. It is the first time in franchise history that the Jazz end up with sole possession of the NBA’s best record and will have the home court advantage when the playoffs come.
A first round in which they can have one of the four teams competing in the play-in tournament, which are the Los Angeles Lakers, the Golden State Warriors, the Memphis Grizzlies and the San Antonio Spurs.
Point guard Mike Conley had 11 points, nine assists and six rebounds in his second game after missing two weeks due to a right hamstring injury. Croatian forward Bojan Bogdanovic had 18 points.
Forward Terence Davis scored 20 points as the leader of Sacramento. The Kings, who started with four reserves, ended the season with a three-game losing streak and many questions about their future as they were eliminated from the playoffs.
A loss to Sacramento in the final game of the regular season would have left Utah tied with Phoenix, and the Suns held the tiebreaker after sweeping three games against the Jazz.
Instead, the Jazz shook off a slow start and beat the Kings for the second time in three weeks.
Utah will rest a week before facing the eighth seed in the playoffs. The play-in rounds end on Friday.
Sacramento heads into the offseason facing questions about coach Luke Walton’s future with the team and a roster that did not perform well for much of the season.
(c) EFE Agency