The rematch leaves no doubt.
     
Sacramento confirmed Saturday what it proved Thursday, and that is this: The Jazz are in a different stratosphere as teams like the Kings, and it isn't exactly a better one.

In other words, after losing 114-90 to Sacramento at the Delta Center just two days after it fell 113-80 to the Kings at Arco Arena, Utah is in a world of hurt.
     
Just how bad?
     
Ten losses in 11 games this season against the top five teams in the NBA's Western Conference. Five losses in six games overall, including a season-worst losing streak of three in a row. Two losses in two days by a combined 57 points to what is, granted, the hottest, and best, team in the league these days.
     
Oh, it's bad all right. Very bad.
     
"We have a difficult time whenever we try to play the game right now," said Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, whose club is back to .500 at 22-22. "Especially (against) a team like (the Kings). Well, just about anybody. It doesn't make any difference right now, the way we're struggling the way we are.
     
"We have not had tough times like this for a long, long time," Sloan added. "Nobody has seen this kind of tough times for us."
     
Well, maybe there are a couple.
     
Thirty-nine-year-old point guard John Stockton was a rookie in the 1984-85 season, when the Jazz, headed in a different direction back then, stood 19-25 after 44 games. They wound up 41-41 ? the last time the franchise failed to have a winning regular season.