Kings: Beno Udrih, Tyreke Evans, Andres Nocioni, Jason Thompson, Spencer Hawes

Jazz: Deron, Brewer, AK-47, Booze, Okur

For the first time this season, the Jazz face a team that was relatively quiet in the off-season. They did go out and add a couple of rookies (Tyreke Evans, Jon Brockman, Omri Casspi) and did add Sergio Rodriguez, Sean May & Desmond Mason. And then, just recently, they released Desmond Mason and signed Ime Udoka. A bunch of small-time players, but their core (Kevin Martin, Hawes, Thompson + Evans now) remains young and talented.

As the Kings enter this game, things will be even tougher than the 1-4 start. Martin, the star player, is out for 6-8 weeks. Andres Nocioni will probably play today, but was arrested Thursday under suspicion of drunk driving, which could cloud things up a bit, especially if the league decides to discipline him. And they've been without Francisco Garcia, who's out for at least the 1st half of this season. What the injury to Martin does, though, is allow them to move Evans to the 2-guard spot. He's been starting at PG, but has struggled a bit in that role (especially as of late), and a move to the off-guard could help him. Beno Udrih, who was their starting PG for at least part of last season, will be starting again now with Martin out.

The Kings have been giving up a lot of points this season. The started the season off with 3 straight road games (OKC, NO, SA), before heading home for their last 2, where they finally picked up a win (against Memphis) before losing again on Wednesday (Atlanta). So they've had a couple of days to prepare for the Jazz... not like that did the Spurs any good.

The Jazz, after a couple of ugly 4th quarters to start the season, finally put together a solid game last time out, dismantling the Spurs behind some solid play by Deron & (surprise surprise) Booze. They'll look to put together a 2nd straight solid (home) game against the Kings tonight.

• They're giving up 108 points/game (Jazz are averaging 102 points/game).
• They average 101.4 points/game (the Jazz are giving up 104 points/game).
• With Martin out, the Kings leading scorer (Hawes) is averaging 11.8 points/game.
• Their leading assist man is F Jason Thompson, who is also the leading rebounder.
• Spencer Hawes is starting now, after originally coming off of the bench behind Sean May.
• The Kings are 0-3 on the road.
• Martin was averaging 30.6 points/game. That's a lot of points to make up.
• Mason started 4 of the 5 games before getting cut, and averaged just 2.6 points/game.
• The Kings will be starting their 5 best scoring options (behind Martin).
• The starters are all averaging between 9.8 & 11.8 ppg. Off the bench, Casspi is getting 9.2.
• The next best option is Sean May, at... 3.8.

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