Kings seek back-to-back wins, facing .500 Utah

Programming note: Kings-Jazz coverage begins at 6 p.m. on Comcast SportsNet California. Territory restrictions apply.

After tinkering with his lineup a bit, Utah Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin might be on to something.The Jazz will try for a season-high third straight victory Friday night when they host the Sacramento Kings in the opener of a home-and-home series.Utah (6-6) defeated Houston 102-91 at home Monday, with the club winning for the second time in as many games with its new starting lineup of Mo Williams, Randy Foye, Paul Millsap, Derrick Favors and Al Jefferson.Corbin has chosen to bring Gordon Hayward and Marvin Williams off the bench after both started the first 10 games, and Hayward has responded with back-to-back 15-point efforts."I think it's good to have Marvin and Gordon coming off the bench because their confidence is back up, shooting the ball real well," said Jefferson, averaging a team-high 15.4 points and 12.0 rebounds.The Jazz scored a season-high 30 fast-break points against Houston and their 30 assists tied their best mark of the season."It's fun when you do that," Hayward said. "It's a lot of fun when everyone's involved and when you're sharing the basketball. We got a lot of buckets in transition and I think that all starts with our defense. That kind of just gets us in the open court and we go from there."The powerful front line of Jefferson, Millsap and Favors is leading that defense as the Jazz are averaging an NBA-best 7.9 blocked shots. They had 11 against the Rockets.Sacramento (3-8) snapped a five-game skid with a 113-97 home win over the Lakers on Wednesday, ending Los Angeles' three-game winning streak. The Kings posted their highest point total of the season after averaging 89.6 points during their losing streak.Reserve Marcus Thornton scored a team-high 23 points in 28 minutes for Sacramento."We needed a win. To get it against the Lakers, that's a good win for us," said Tyreke Evans, who scored 18 and had a season-high six assists. "We just got to keep it going from here. We're going to Utah and it's not easy to play up there so we just have to be playing together as a team for 48 minutes."Evans, averaging 13.0 points in his career, has scored 22.9 in nine games against the Jazz - his highest mark against any team.Sacramento and Utah split their four meetings last season, with the games decided by a total of 12 points. Jefferson had a winning tip-in with nine-tenths of a second left in a 103-102 victory in Salt Lake City on March 22.The teams close out their home-and-home set Saturday in Sacramento.