Sixers Play a Sad Tune in Loss to Jazz

By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)

Utah 88, Philadelphia 71 – Box Score

Sixers fans who stayed in on a Saturday night hoping to see two promising young teams on the upswing were treated to a truly historic performance. Unfortunately, it was one of history’s bad parts, like a plague or natural disaster, as point guard Michael Carter-Williams had one of the worst shooting performances in NBA history. For only the 6th time since the 1985-86 season (when Basketball-Reference begins having backdated game logs), a player made less than 3 field goals while attempting 20 or more shots, as MCW finished 2-20 from the field with 6 turnovers. The performance was like every concern about his long-term potential concentrated into 37 minutes of eye-gouging basketball.

The real shame is the game was there for the taking, with the Sixers fighting back to take the lead in the second half, and only trailing by 4 before the Jazz closed out the game on an 18-5 run. The Jazz shot just 4-23 from behind the arc, and struggled nearly across the board with the exception of outstanding play from Derrick Favors. The Jazz big man finished with 17 points, 15 rebounds, and 5 blocks, deterring a host of other Philly shots on the interior and bullying his way for a big bucket whenever the Sixers were threatening.

As for Sixers who were able to throw the ball into the hoop at some point throughout the evening, both Robert Covington and Tony Wroten had nice outings. Covington had 17 points on 5-10 shooting and 9 rebounds, hitting two threes during a 15-2 Sixers run to start the third quarter and give the team the lead. Wroten led all scorers with 20 points, replacing JaKarr Sampson in the starting lineup to begin the second half as Brett Brown looked for anything to help spark the dormant offense.

Other Game Notes:

• Nerlens Noel briefly went to the locker room in the second half after turning his ankle, but did return to the game. He went to get an x-ray on the ankle following the contest, which will hopefully turn up nothing.
• Furkan Aldemir received some playing time in the first quarter, and although he didn’t score, played some tough interior defense and set some bone-crushing screens which I enjoyed. I was surprised he never got back into the game after that, especially with the success Favors was having against the other Sixers bigs.
• K.J. McDaniels didn’t have one of his best game, committing some sloppy turnovers and continuing to struggle with his shot. Still, he did make one hustle play that literally had me scream out in delight. After McDaniels turned the ball over, rather than put his head down at all, he immediately sprinted back on defense and did this to Dante Exum.

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I’d love for MCW to do something like that rather than turn to the refs for a call every other possession.

Now more than halfway through their 7-game road trip, the Sixers next take on Golden State Tuesday night. Steph Curry and Klay Thompson may carve out some new entries in the record books in that contest.