Kyle Filipowski reacts to being tested by NBA veterans as the Kings beat the Jazz

Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 121-117 loss to the Sacramento Kings from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.

1. Letting De’Aaron Fox score 49

On the one hand, it’s not like the Jazz’s defense should be criticized too harshly for allowing De’Aaron Fox to score 49 points tonight. After all, he scored 60 points against a much better defense just last night. 24 hours later, the Jazz limited him to 11 fewer points!

And on the other hand, last night, the Kings had Domantas Sabonis, the guy who finished eighth in the MVP voting last year. Tonight they had Doug McDermott – remember him? – start instead. And of course 49 points is 49 points, probably bad to allow no matter how you spin it.

And on the other hand, if you watch the tape… you’ll see that it was a pretty impressive 49. Fox hit all sorts of stepbacks and floaters and midrange pull-ups that were often contested. Only two of his baskets came at the rim, everything else was from the areas you’d probably want him to shoot from.

And on the other hand, the fact that the Jazz’s defensemen were basically there, just didn’t make an impact, is pretty reflective of how poor they are. Keyonte George is taller than Fox, but when he contests Fox’s shots, I’m not sure he makes a difference. He’s not the only one who struggled though: Collin Sexton, Cody Williams and John Collins did too. Ideally, the Jazz would have a defensive stopper on their team they could throw at players like Fox, someone who could make a difference.

And on the other other other side…stopping Fox just one more time could have resulted in a Jazz win. As a franchise, they don’t want to win games right now. Many Jazz fans online were excited that the Kings were able to pull this one off — and I don’t wildly disagree with their long-term thinking.

2. Kyle Filipowski reacts to being tested

Kyle Filipowski’s good play continues to be the story of the early Jazz season.

It’s not a super eye-popping box score for Filipowski – just nine points – but the rookie led the Jazz in plus-minus with a +12 and picked up three steals to start. The loudest moment of the night, perhaps for both teams, was this killer poster over Kings center Alex Len.

But the steals were nice — as was his defensive effort all night. He’s just significantly better defensively than NBA opposition gives him credit for. Fox manipulated the Jazz to get Filipowski on him twice, and both times Filipowski forced Fox into a contested jump shot where Filipowski’s length seemed to speed him up a bit.

However, this is not the only time Filipowski was tested. The Kings also tested him in a number of other ways — mostly physically, down in the paint. Filipowski said he has found his veteran NBA competition to be “physical, like sneaky physical,” with little elbows thrown when the refs aren’t looking. He came out of tonight’s game with ice on his shoulder and ankle, for example. He was the last player out of the practice room as the Jazz’s staff tended to him.

“I think that’s the way it is for rookies, especially rookies standing up to that kind of thing,” Filipowski said. “I’m going to put my big boy pants on, you know, and not back down from that challenge.”

The same was true in college, I noted — teams would do whatever it took to test Filipowski, both in isolation and with their physicality. Then Filipowski pretty much answered all of those tests en route to becoming a second-team All-American.

He does the same now. If he continues this good play, he is on track to be recognized as one of the league’s best rookies this season.

3. The longest game

This was a problem tonight.

The biggest delays of the night came when the Kings took (and won) two challenges in the final two minutes — frankly, both plays were pretty obvious bad calls by the officiating tonight that Kings coach Mike Brown probably thought should have been called correctly. from the start. Six fouls were also called in that period; add two timeouts by both teams and you end up with a long game.

There were also weird administrative breaks when the scoreboard and referees disagreed on how many timeouts the Jazz had left, for example. (The judges were right about that.)

The NBA has done a lot to speed up the game at the end — especially limiting teams to just two timeouts in the final three minutes has made a difference compared to the three-or-four timeout parties we could get in the past. But challenges can also slow things down a lot. In the end, I’m probably inclined to correct the call, especially when the bad calls are as obvious as what we saw tonight.

Regardless, these delays resulted in a running time of 2:35. It is the longest Jazz game without overtime since the 2021 Christmas Day game, which was 2:39. However, at least that game was on national television, resulting in much longer timeouts and breaks. The previous 2:35 or longer non-overtime Jazz game before that? Not since November 10, 2015.

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