The Philadelphia 76ers were on the second night of a back-to-back on Thursday when they took on the Utah Jazz. They were also at the end of a stretch where they played 10 of 12 games on the road and it seemed to affect them in a 116-96 loss to the Jazz at home.
The Sixers shot just 6-for-33 from deep as it looked like a majority of their shots were short and they were outrebounded 52-34 by Utah. Rudy Gobert pulled down 21 rebounds and then Hassan Whiteside hopped off the bench and had 10 rebounds of his own.
“I just thought we had great looks and couldn’t make a shot,” said coach Doc Rivers. “Every 50/50 ball, you saw in the first half, and then it kind of got over, but every loose ball, any ball that it took energy to get to they got to. You could see how the game was going.”
Joel Embiid had 19 points and nine rebounds, Seth Curry had 18, and Tobias Harris had 17 and seven rebounds, but it was just a game where the Sixers looked like they were just tired and didn’t have it. That happens sometimes in the NBA.
“I actually don’t have a clue,” said Rivers. “This is the NBA and some nights, if you can predict it, it would be great, we have played 10 out of 12 games on the road, and all that stuff. I was tired. I can say that, for sure, but who knows?”
The Sixers just seemed like they had a tough time on the offensive end and once they got down big, they couldn’t get into a rhythm and a flow in order to truly mount the comeback.
“I mean we couldn’t get into any rhythm out there, any flow of how we are going to play,” said Harris. “I think a big part of it was defensive end, not enough stops for us to get out into transition but we have our guys with a real offensive balance out there as a whole. Tough to win a game against a good team that’s playing well and makes shots when we didn’t have anything to come up with on the other end.”
The Sixers will look to bounce back on Saturday against the Golden State Warriors.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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