By: Kylan Watson

After being routed and embarrassed by the New York Knicks last night, the Philadelphia 76ers had a chance at redemption as they faced the Utah Jazz. The Sixers were missing a few key pieces, but  they had numerous chances to take this game from Utah.  They could not do it as they failed to hit three-pointers and could not stop the Jazz’s pick-and-roll scheme. Utah took full advantage beating the Sixers 120-109.

Philly started this game very sluggishly the Jazz were able to take full advantage of the open paint without Joel Embiid being available in tonight’s game. It must have been freezing in the Wells Fargo Center tonight because the Sixers generated no heat from beyond the arc only hitting seven/38 three-pointers. They could not throw a brick in the Delaware River tonight even the usually consistent Tyrese Maxey (25-points and had nine-assists) only hit nine/24 shots in the contest. He was the only star the Sixers had available tonight. The question needs to be asked what will it take for Tyrese Maxey to show up when Joel Embiid is not on the floor? He is a great player, but he needs to learn how to still be an impact player even when the shots are not falling and not to get discouraged. To his credit tonight he got some key deflections and a few steals that led to easy baskets. It’s a team game and the Sixers have to get these offensive and defensive woes figured out without Embiid.  Right now it looks like this team just needs to get healthy and add some help at the margins if they want to go far in the postseason. These last two games have shown that the Sixers have some perimeter defensive inefficiencies when De’Anthony Melton and Tobias Harris are not out there to anchor the perimeter defense. Injuries happen but the Sixers are the second best defense in the league that have been playing more like the Philadelphia Eagles third down defense. The Jazz were attacking the paint (scored 72-points in the paint) like the Sixers defenders were not even there and they offered up little resistance. The perimeter defense has to improve especially as the Sixers see some of the best backcourts in the league in the next few games, as they prepare for the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night and the Sacramento Kings on Friday night. They may have Embiid and Harris available, but somebody has to take on the Melton role of getting deflections and shutting down the opposing team’s best shooter.

The Utah Jazz imposed their will throughout this game and the Sixers could do little to stop them during this game. Utah started pulling away in the third quarter when the Sixers got cold from the field and just could not keep up with the Jazz in the paint. They did a good enough job keeping the Jazz from hitting three-pointers, but the paint was wide-open tonight and that was a key part of Utah’s offensive scheme. Lauri Markkanen led them in this game scoring 33-points and hitting five/nine three-pointers  in the contest. The Jazz ball movement killed Philly tonight they were able to find him in the corner wide-open to hit some back breaking three-pointers to kill the Sixers comeback attempt and momentum. If they were able to chase him off the three-point line the ball found him anyway either via a deflection or offensive rebound which led to an easy basket. Utah was the tougher and hungrier team tonight and they took this one from the Sixers.  They will need to take these next few days that they have off to readjust their scheme.

Philly will now prepare to face the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night. Ball movement will need to continue to be apart of the Sixers offensive scheme and the shots will start falling if they continue to create high percentage opportunities from the perimeter and three-point line. They are currently in a shooting slump and the best medicine is to keep shooting and not let it affect their defensive scheme. It did tonight and the perimeter and paint defense was not up to par to stop the Jazz and Philly have to stay attached to their man because the Hawks will not be afraid to fire off a shot if they get space to operate. Additionally, they will need to hold them to one possession and not give them multiple opportunities to make shots because that will build their confidence and that makes them a lot tougher to beat. If the Sixers can implement these things they should be able to get their 24^th victory of the season.