PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers took a 120-109 loss to the Utah Jazz on Saturday night for their second straight loss. It was the second night of a back-to-back, and the Sixers had a tough time converting on the offensive end.
Philadelphia shot 40.4% from the floor compared to 57.5% from the floor for Utah. However, the Sixers forced 24 Jazz turnovers to stay in the game while they themselves committed only six. They took 104 shots on the night compared to 80 for Utah. Normally, that results in a win for Philadelphia, but the Sixers were unable to convert their open looks.
In their defense, the Sixers were without Joel Embiid, Tobias Harris, De’Anthony Melton, Robert Covington and Furkan Korkmaz. However, coach Nick Nurse is not using that as an excuse.
“I believe like even even though you’re missing whatever five guys that those guys can collectively play together better than that, right?” said Nurse. “They can execute better. They can defend better than that. They can make those open shots. They can, you know what I’m saying? There was plenty of shots to step into and make in that game.”
To Nurse’s point, Tyrese Maxey shot 1-for-8 from deep, Kelly Oubre Jr. was 1-for-6, Nic Batum was 0-for-5 and Patrick Beverley was 2-for-6. It was a tough night all around for Philadelphia at home.
“Just all of our guys that are 1-for-5, 1-for-8, 1-for-6, 1-for-8. 2-for-21 from our best three shooters, you got to play better than that,” Nurse said. “When you’re short-handed, you got to play better than that. You got to shoot the ball better and you got to finish better than that.”
Looking deeper into the numbers, the Jazz had 19 fast-break points compared to 24 for the Sixers. Philadelphia wasted opportunities all night in what ended up being a winnable game for them.
“We got 104 shots to their 80,” Nurse added. “We turned them over 23 times. We didn’t get enough out of it, right? We got 24 turnovers and 24 points. That number’s got to be closer to double that. So we didn’t do a good enough job of scoring and transition either.”
Maxey took ownership of the tough night. He revealed what Nurse told the team as they now try and move forward.
“Coach said we just didn’t play hard enough,” he said after the loss. “He felt like guys who came in, we could’ve played a lot harder and with a lot more force so he said we’ll work on that. We’ll get back to doing that and playing that way.”
The Sixers will have three days off before taking on the Atlanta Hawks on the road on Wednesday.
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