December 29, 2015
Close, but no cigar.
The Philadelphia 76ers (2-31) went on a huge second-half run in Salt Lake City against an undermanned Utah Jazz (13-16) team (no Stifle Tower, Derrick Favors, or Alec Burks), but they ultimately fell short, 95-91. Since you kind of have to grade these Sixers on a curve, there were plenty of positives to take away from the close road loss.
“I just think that as a group, we had tremendous energy,” Brett Brown told reporters after the game. “I thought Robert [Covington] came in and we saw him again. He hadn’t been playing well. And I think as a group, we played well and he led us.”
Since the margin ended up at four points, I figure that we will go with four observations for the recap:
1. Since Brown mentioned Covington first in his post-game comments, let’s start there. The Covster sat for the entire first quarter, presumably because he hasn’t played up to his standards over the past week. Just as soon as he had seemingly righted the ship, Covington fell back down to earth hard. I tweeted his splits out yesterday:
He only shot 3-9 from the field, but Brown was correct in pointing out that Covington (team-high +16) led them back. Through 28 minutes of play, Brown couldn’t find a combination that defended the Jazz at an acceptable level. When Covington checked into the game at 8:00 in the third quarter, the Sixers trailed 68-50. When he checked out a little over ten minutes later, they were up 80-78.
“That third period was as good of a period as we have played, both sides of the ball,” Brown said.
The lineup that finally defended had Covington at the 4. The third-year pro moved his feet on switches and was able to match the Jazz’s physicality, which was important because…
2. The Sixers didn’t do an acceptable job on the defensive boards. Utah is adept at crashing the offensive glass, but they were without their starting frontcourt and still cleaned up 34 percent of their misses. That isn’t good enough, and almost everyone in blue was responsible.
The 37 points that the Sixers surrendered in the first quarter came back to bite them in a big way. At the 2, Isaiah Canaan had a lot of trouble matching up with the bigger Rodney Hood, who could easily rise up and shoot over him. Lil’ Sip took an ugly minus-15 in just 17 minutes.
The Jazz shot 36 free throws, and while I agree with Brown that the Sixers (Jerami Grant especially) didn’t get a great whistle, they made some lazy mistakes. Add everything up, and the first quarter is why the Sixers ultimately lost.
“We moved our feet well in the first period, but we didn’t show our hands,” Brown said. “We fouled too much with our hands.”
3. Richaun Holmes, who had one defensive board in 22 minutes, was certainly partially responsible for the rebounding woes. But the rookie out of Bowling Green was excellent offensively: 8-11 FG, 1-2 FT, 18 points.
The absence Rudy Gobert certainly made things easier, but Holmes consistently made tough finishes in traffic around the basket while setting a career-high. Playing in the same arena where he fractured his elbow back in July, Holmes even stepped out and knocked down a three.
4. In the interest of burying the lede, Nerlens Noel was the story of the night: 18 points (8-9 FG), 6 rebounds, 5 blocks, and 2 steals. Close your eyes, and it looks like we’re back in March:
Merry Ishmas, Nerlens. There is no getting around the fact that Noel has struggled mightily at times this season, so watching him challenge everything at the rim and generally cause havoc at the defensive end was certainly a sight for sore eyes.
Of course, Noel was playing exclusively at the 5. Can he keep this up when Jahlil Okafor returns to the lineup likely on Wednesday in Sacramento?
"That's the jigsaw puzzle of the 2015-16 Philadelphia 76ers," Brown said. "You've got two bigs that you try to coach to co-exist and try to find ways to make it work."
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
