Honestly, I’m just upset that I stayed up for this. The 76ers got slaughtered by the Jazz, costing them their fifth straight game. If I had a dollar for every time Alaa Abdalnaaby talked about fatigue in this game I would have much more money to lose on Parx Sportsbook this weekend. With tired legs, the 76ers just did not have it tonight, and the path forward is a bumpy one, with a tough stretch of games ahead while still without Joel Embiid, Matisse Thybulle, and Danny Green until further notice.

There isn’t much to say about this one, from the start the 76ers got bullied by Rudy Gobert and were completely unable to guard this team. To credit Utah, they shoot the lights out basically every time I watch them play and tonight was no different.

The whole team struggled from the field tonight. As a team, the 76ers shot 37% from the field and 21% from deep. The Sixers floundered on every possession, and had a terrible time finding quality shots. Tyrese Maxey was the only sign of light offensively, he had another 20+ point outing in this game but it wasn’t nearly enough.

The 76ers bench was a combined 2/16 from deep with Isaiah Joe and Furkan Korkmaz making one of their 14 three point shots. Seth Curry has been struggling as well of recent, only having five points tonight practically being nonexistent. Meanwhile for the Jazz, Bojan Bogdanovic led the team with 27 points with Jordan Clarkson right behind him with 20 of his own.

Sometimes, I genuinely question the coaching philosophy from Doc Rivers. The only time the Sixers saw remote success was when they implemented a small ball lineup. But instead of sticking with that style, they let Andre Drummond stumble around the paint and allow Gobert to deter any driving player. Charles Bassey saw the first backup minutes, and didn’t help much, and the Sixers basically folded to the interior dominance of Utah.

Paul Reed is the only switchable big on this roster, and has high enough energy to compete on the defensive end and didn’t see the floor until they were down by 30 points in the final minute of the 3rd quarter. In a blowout, it makes no sense to me not to exhaust all the options you have, but Doc had other plans tonight.

At the end of the day, I think we all anticipated a loss in this game unfortunately. With a shorthanded squad who has played an absurd amount of minutes over the last week or so it only makes sense especially to a good team like Utah. The Sixers move on to play Denver on Thursday night, hopefully making it more worthwhile for all of us.

See you Thursday.