The Philadelphia 76ers led the Utah Jazz at the end of each quarter, and this was one game that they weren’t going to allow to get away from them.
After using a short eight-man rotation against the Golden State Warriors on Saturday, Brett Brown had a shallow bench again tonight. Markelle Fultz, Justin Anderson, and Nik Stauskas were all definitely out before the game even started, while Richaun Holmes, Joel Embiid, and Jerryd Bayless were all available in only a limited sense (only Embiid and Bayless played).
Jacob Pullen, one of the two players on a two-way contract for the Philadelphia 76ers, was even called up. That’s indicative of how dire the situation was.
However, missing multiple players didn’t slow the Sixers down early on. They closed the first quarter on a 20-8 run to take a 25-15 lead, and the Rudy Gobert-less Jazz looked seriously overmatched.
This was a relatively low scoring affair overall, and the early shooting reflected that. In the first half, the 76ers didn’t make a three at all, while the Jazz went 2-11. Interestingly, both makes came from Ricky Rubio. Who’d have thought?
The Utah Jazz were successful in making this game a slow, defensive slugfest, but they still didn’t have the talent to win. The Sixers pulled away with a big run early in the third (similar to what the Warriors did to us only a game ago) that included 14 points from Ben Simmons. They never looked back.
One story line that’s interesting to watch as the season progresses will be who gets the nod in starting lineups out of Bayless and Dario Saric, and potentially even Markelle Fultz eventually. I personally would prefer starting Bayless, but I understand the arguments for each side.
Bayless is by far the best shooter. Lineups with Saric and Joel Embiid down low can get pretty crowded, and take away the driving lanes Simmons needs. It also allows Simmons to match up with power forwards, where I think he is best suited. However, it makes our bench lineups light on shooting, with only Timothe Luwawu-Caborrot and Anderson as decent shooters.
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However, starting Saric does allow for the Sixers to murder teams on the boards (as they did tonight, outrebounding the Jazz 55-34). It also forces Simmons to guard perimeter players, and to acheive his full defensive potential as a versatile switcher a la Draymond Green, that’s a valuable skill to learn. It does make the lineups a little unbalanced though, as the bench unit would be pretty small compared to the giant starting lineup.
Fultz, Bayless, T.J. McConnell, TLC, and Anderson are all perimeter players, but the only other rotation bigs are Richaun Holmes and Amir Johnson. Bringing Saric off the bench and starting Bayless or Fultz helps to remedy that situation.
Fultz has the highest upside out of any of the three, and theoretically should be the point guard of the future. His development should be prioritized over that of the other two. However, until he fixes his jumper, his fit alongside Simmons will still be iffy. And just in terms of performance so far this season, he has certainly been the least effective.
Perhaps Brett Brown intends to go back to using Bayless in the starting lineup, and just didn’t do it today because Bayless’s wrist is still sore. Maybe he wants to experiment more with this gigantic starting lineup, zagging while the rest of the league zigs. Honestly, I don’t care who he starts if we keep on winning though.
Next: The Sixers have soiled Jahlil Okafor