March 04, 2026
PHILADELPHIA – Beating a team that is trying to lose, in theory, should not be all that hard. But on Wednesday night, an undermanned Sixers group needed all 48 minutes to earn a 106-102 over a Utah Jazz team trying to safeguard its protected first-round pick by racking up as many losses as possible before the end of the season.
With Joel Embiid (oblique), Kelly Oubre Jr. (illness), VJ Edgecombe (back) and Paul George (suspension) all sidelined, it is not like the Sixers had anything resembling their best team out there. But against a Jazz team playing without a group of players including Lauri Markkanen, Jaren Jackson Jr., Jusuf Nurkić and Walker Kessler, even a team of Tyrese Maxey and friends should have had a relatively easy time notching a win.
The Sixers did not necessarily play poorly at any point during this game, but it felt like they understood who their opponents were and were going through the motions. They led from wire to wire in the first half, but an Utah push early in the third quarter suddenly put the Sixers in a hole, but they responded late in the frame. Once Utah's blatant tanking measures kicked in down the stretch, the Sixers still struggled to pull away. They finally escaped in the final minute to secure one of the least inspiring wins imaginable.
Takeaways from a Sixers win that should have come much more easily:
When four of the five players a team would designate as starters while at full strength are sidelined, there is no choice but to get creative. That is what Sixers head coach Nick Nurse had to do on Wednesday, with only three obvious candidates to start in Maxey, Dominick Barlow and Quentin Grimes.
Nurse has been consistent just about all season: when Embiid does not play, Andre Drummond starts and Adem Bona comes off the bench. Nurse has believed Drummond's size and Bona's energy make them best suited for those roles. Before Wednesday's game, he acknowledged that Bona's minutes have been far better than those of Drummond for a long time, and said he was reconsidering the arrangement he has leaned on all year. Sure enough, when the Sixers unveiled their starting lineup it was Bona in there and not Drummond.
While Nurse hinted at this change pregame, he made a point to provide Drummond with an emphatic vote of confidence, saying no matter what the matchups look like, on nights Embiid does not play the team needs Drummond's rebounding and physicality inside the same way it needs Bona's athleticism. But when Drummond's significant and prolonged struggles continued later in the game, Nurse decided to open the fourth quarter with Barlow and Jabari Walker manning the middle together.
Perhaps the more interesting starting lineup decision: instead of going with the lone experienced wing on the team in Justin Edwards, Nurse started Trendon Watford, forming a three-big lineup. Watford's minutes with two other bigs have gone extremely poorly all year, but it is a concept Nurse remains fond of.
Maxey, Grimes, Watford, Barlow and Bona were the opening five, and while Edwards checked into the game after six minutes and change, he was not the only local product to do so. Allentown native Tyrese Martin, the team's most recent two-way signee, got his first crack at rotation minutes. Nurse made a comment before the game about how the team had yet to see any of Martin, whose brief playing time with the team has come in garbage time, and very little of fellow two-way player Dalen Terry. MarJon Beauchamp, the Sixers' third two-way player, was active for the first time in a while, but was not part of the rotation.
Martin's early minutes were uninspiring; he had a pair of unforced turnovers and missed an open three. He has been a productive NBA player before and boasts an interesting blend of size and ball-handling, but this Sixers team might be better off with someone specializing in off-ball skills. Martin did convert a lefty layup late in the third quarter and buried a triple early in the fourth.
From there, it was a rather simple puzzle to fill in, with Walker logging extremely impressive backup power forward minutes and Cam Payne slotting into the backup point guard role. But Nurse said that Kyle Lowry was another option for a rotation cameo on Wednesday, and followed through on that midway through the second quarter, bringing the 39-year-old in the game when Maxey returned from his traditional rest period. Lowry had a rather quick hook after missing two open threes. Lowry stunningly returned to a one-possession game with about eight minutes left, logging a few extra minutes.
Nurse toggled back and forth between three-guard and three-big looks, which sounds appealing but requires having players who are very good at very different things. Particularly when it comes to the three-guard lineups, there is still not close to enough of an indication that Nurse can rely on these looks. Wednesday's game was not a banner night for those lineups or any other ones the Sixers played.
Nurse said on Tuesday that it is difficult for him to wrestle with any rotation that does not include Watford and Walker. On Tuesday, he only played Watford early on, but Walker scored 20 points in garbage time. After not being part of the regular rotation and still ending up with a season-high in scoring, Walker said that he wished the next game could start right then and there.
Walker was confident the momentum would carry into Wednesday's game, and he was right. He checked in and knocked down a three, and then another... and then another... and then another. The 23-year-old's opening stint lasted just under eight minutes, and he completely flipped the tenor of the game with not just his energy but his usually-shaky shooting. Walker scored 15 points making all five of his shot attempts, with four of those coming from long range:
Admin is trying to keep up with the Jabari Walker three-pointers (he has four now) pic.twitter.com/uW1Qpdjf3P
— Liberty Ballers (@Liberty_Ballers) March 5, 2026
Walker was also his typical self, working like crazy on the glass trying to help the Sixers win the possession battle. On a night many Sixers appeared to be sleepwalking, Walker was intense. Fittingly, when the Sixers finally emerged victorious, it was Walker who grabbed the defensive rebound before icing the game with a pair of free throws. He finished the night with another new season-high in points (22 points) to go with 10 rebounds.
The only reason Walker fell out of the rotation early last month is because the team exhausted his 50 days of two-way availability in the first 50 games of the season and opted to wait and survey the buyout market before officially signing him to a standard deal, yet since he got that new contract he has been in and out of the mix.
Nurse clearly seems to be trying to will a Watford rotation push into existence, and his skills as a point forward are certainly harder to find than what Walker has to offer. However, Walker's physicality as a defender and tenacity as a rebounder are far more reliable from game to game. And while Walker is not defended like a quality three-point shooter, he is arguably better from long range than Watford, whose offensive utility is very much limited without the ball.
As Nurse has continually pointed out, there are good cases for and against both players. Watford might be the higher-upside play, but Walker provides much more stability. It is another difficult rotation question Nurse must find an answer to in the stretch run of the season.
Up next: The Sixers will have two days off before returning to action on Saturday evening in Atlanta, looking to avenge their difficult losses against the Hawks earlier in the season.
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