Fourth-quarter failure sends Kings to defeat against Jazz

Salt Lake City, UT (Basketball News) - Andrei Kirilenko scored 24 points and the Utah Jazz took advantage of Sacramento’s offensive futility in the fourth quarter to record an 89-79 victory at the Delta Center.

Milt Palacio contributed 19 points and Mehmet Okur added 15 in Utah’s second straight victory. Kirilenko posted 11 rebounds as well.

The two clubs will meet again on Super Bowl Sunday at ARCO Arena.

Ron Artest scored 20 points before leaving the game in the fourth quarter will an apparent hip injury. Artest came back out of the locker room and attempted to convince head coach Rick Adelman to let him in the game, but the forward never returned.

Mike Bibby contributed 15 points and Shareef Abdur-Rahim tallied 14, as the Kings lost for the third time in four games.

The Kings were undone by a miserable shooting performance in the fourth period. Sacramento made 12-of-14 free throws in the stanza, but missed all 20 of its field goal attempts.

The Kings ended the third quarter on an 11-2 burst to take a 67-55 lead. Abdur-Rahim drained a jumper, Bibby buried a trey and Brian Skinner made a jumper to cap the run and increase Sacramento’s advantage to a dozen.

The fourth quarter was a completely different story.

The Jazz began the stanza on a 19-5 spurt to seize a 74-72 lead. Kirilenko scored eight points during the burst and Utah lived at the free throw line in the early stages of the period.

The game remained tight the rest of the way. Kirilenko’s scoop shot with 2:50 left gave Utah a 78-74 lead, and after a Abdur-Rahim free throw, Palacio missed a running shot in the lane. However, Greg Ostertag cleaned up with a putback to extend the lead to 80-75.

Kirilenko made two more free throws with 1:37 left to give the Jazz an insurmountable 82-75 edge, as the Kings couldn’t throw a shot into the Salt Lake in the fourth quarter.

The Jazz drained their free throws down the stretch to seal the victory.

Sacramento led 22-18 after one quarter and 45-39 at the half.

Game Notes

Utah improved to 12-12 at home this season...Sacramento fell to 6-16 as the visitor and has dropped seven of its last eight away from home...Ostertag had six points and 10 rebounds off the bench...Rookie Deron Williams added 11 points for the Jazz...Sacramento’s Kevin Martin had 10 points in the loss.