Utah Jazz vs. Philadelphia 76ers: Keys to the Game

The Utah Jazz will look to make it two straight wins tonight as they battle a Philadelphia 76ers team that is without their best player Joel Embiid.

The Utah Jazz were able to get back to their winning ways on Tuesday albeit in a closer than comfort win against a less than formidable opponent in the Los Angeles Lakers. Nevertheless, a W is a W and it was good to see Utah finally notch one in the win column after having dropped three straight.

And with the recent news reported by our very own Zack Padmore yesterday that Joel Embiid is resting tonight for the Philadelphia 76ers, the Jazz should have a great chance to come away with a win and initiate a brand new win streak.

It was all Jazz the last time these two teams met as Utah logged a 109-84 victory, despite the fact that George Hill didn’t play. It’s still very much up in the air about whether or not he’ll play tonight given that he missed this morning’s shootaround and is listed as questionable for the contest.

Questionable is better than out, though, so we’ll see what happens.

However, while it would be great to see Hill back in action and a game against the Sixers would be a perfect opportunity for him to ease his way back into game shape against a less than foreboding opponent, it’s very likely that Utah will come away with a win regardless of whether he suits up or not.

The Sixers are 7-23 overall, 2-9 on the road, are without their leading scorer and are outmatched by the Jazz at every single position across the board. Nevertheless, Philly gets rare wins when they capitalize on other teams overlooking them, so Utah will still need to focus on these key areas to come away with the win.

Key Match-up – Gordon Hayward and Ersan Ilyasova

It may seem strange to have the key match-up involve a player who hasn’t been a regular starter for the 76ers, however, Ersan Ilyasova is currently Philadlephia’s second leading scorer at 13.5 points per game. Not only that, but he often logs more minutes than several of the starters (in fact he’s second on the team in minutes per game) and has worked his way into becoming an important part of this Sixers team.

Ilyasova is a savvy vet who will likely look to pick up a lot of the slack left by Joel Embiid’s absence. Therefore, Gordon Hayward will have to be at his best to slow down Philadelphia’s “interim leading scorer.”

And he certainly was at his best the last time these two teams met as in just his second game of the year Hayward logged 20 points and seven rebounds en route to a big Jazz win. He was huge in Utah’s most recent victory over the Lakers as well as he logged 31 points on 58.8 percent shooting from the field while making three of his six attempts from deep.

And with very few skilled players to slow him down, Hayward should have no trouble outmatching Ilyasova in the contest and leading the Jazz to victory.

Key Stat – Turnovers

The major reason why the Los Angeles Lakers were able to stay in the game on Tuesday was because the Jazz struggled to take care of the ball as they ended the contest with 19 turnovers. In both wins and losses recently, turnovers have severely hindered the Jazz.

Related Story: Utah Jazz Notes: George Hill Expects to Play, Joel Bolomboy Update

While they were in the top ten in the league for fewest turnovers per game earlier in the season, they’ve now dropped down to 15th. And committing turnovers time after time is one of the little mistakes that a struggling team like Philly will need to be able to take advantage of if they hope to beat a much more talented opponent like the Jazz.

Thus Utah needs to not give them any help or advantage by coughing up the rock as excessively as they have been. Hopefully George Hill’s possible return can help shore up some of the turnover issues, but regardless of whether he’s active or not, the Jazz need to show some serious improvement in this area as a team.

Key Performer – Rodney Hood

With Joel Embiid out for tonight’s contest, it’s really tempting to slot Rudy Gobert as the key performer. However, I’ve given Rudy a lot of love lately and Rodney Hood is well overdue for a bounce-back game, so I’m going to give him the nod.

If he was looking for a confidence builder, the 76ers are a good team to face off against to help get his swagger back. Philly doesn’t exactly boast an elite bunch of wing defenders, so Hood should be able to have his way both from deep and by attacking the rim.

He’s scored just four points over the last three games while converting only 2-of-18 field goal attempts (11 percent). While his struggles can be attributed to a long bout with illness and then trying to readjust upon returning, it’s about time that Hood got back to his high-powered offensive ways.

In his seven games prior to this recent three-game slump, Hood was averaging 15.4 points per game so hopefully that’s more the kind of performance we’ll get out of him tonight.

Prediction – Jazz 110, 76ers 85

Particularly with Joel Embiid out, this Sixers team becomes even less of a threat than they were in the first place (if you could have ever considered them much of a threat to begin with). Thus, I have no problem sticking with my original prediction for this game from earlier in the week and slotting the Jazz in at a 25-point victory.

That’s the same margin that they won by back in November and with this game taking place in Salt Lake City, Embiid out and Hill possibly returning, I see no reason why Utah can’t at least match the effort.

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The Jazz currently find themselves in sixth place in the Western Conference after Memphis has dropped their last two, so a win tonight would be very helpful as Utah looks to climb its way back up the standings.

The Grizzlies and Thunder, the two teams immediately behind and ahead of the Jazz in the standings, respectively, play one another tonight, then while Utah goes on to play a lackluster Suns team to close out 2016, the Thunder will be matched up against a fellow Western Conference playoff contender in the Clippers.

Thus if Utah takes care of business in its next two games, starting tonight, and a few other chips fall just right, they have a chance to start out 2017 in sole possession of 5th place in the West.

All stats courtesy of NBA.com