The Utah Jazz rebounded from a historic loss in Dallas, but still came up just short against the Philadelphia 76ers in Jimmy Butler’s home debut.
After the Utah Jazz received a historic, 50-point pounding at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks this week, Coach Quin Snyder slammed his team for its listless performance. “There was a point where we stopped competing,” he said at the post-game presser.
Two nights later, the Jazz band gave a much more spirited effort against the Philadelphia 76ers. It just wasn’t enough in the end. Philly ultimately prevailed at Wells Fargo Center, 113-107.
Donovan Mitchell, who was clearly determined to put the Mavs loss behind him from the outset, led Utah with 31 points on the night.
Much of Mitchell’s night was an inefficient chuck fest — he was 13-for-35 from the field in the game — but his crunch-time efforts nearly put the Jazz in a position to win. He scored six unanswered points late to give the Jazz a three-point lead at 101-98. However, the Jazz suffered costly lapses on both sides of the ball down the stretch and couldn’t hold court.
Still, after falling down by 16 early and standing idly by as the Sixers knocked down 13-of-15 shots in the first period, the Jazz definitely rediscovered some of their mojo.
Derrick Favors was key in getting the Jazz back into the game, scoring 13 points on 5-of-5 shooting in the first half and leading a 28-16 second-quarter win. For the night, the Jazz were plus-11 when he was on the floor.
As a team, though, the Jazz were plagued by some of the same issues that have hurt them in recent weeks. Specifically, they missed 18 of their 22 3-point attempts and left 16 points off the board at the charity stripe.
Although he was better from the field, Ricky Rubio was a big culprit in the latter area, making just four of nine foul shots.
At some point, some of these shots are going to start falling. But if the Jazz can’t maintain a consistent level of competitive focus, specifically on the defensive end, they won’t reach their full potential.
Jimmy Butler led the way for the Sixers in his home debut with the team, dropping 28 points on 12-of-15 from the field and adding seven dimes for good measure.
Given the effort the Jazz gave to even get back in the game and fight to win it in the end, it could be tough sledding for the team when the return to the hardwood tomorrow against the Boston Celtics.
That said, the Cs could be battling tired legs as well; the Toronto Raptors just took them to overtime. Boston won that game 123-116.
The Jazz and the Cs will tip things off from TD Garden at 5:30 PM MT on Saturday.