The dry-erase board in the Sixers’ locker room had a message for the team that sounded more like a warning.
It read:
“Bottom of the stat sheet game.”
In other words, the Sixers were going to have to win the battle of the intangibles if they were going to beat the Utah Jazz on Friday night at the Wells Fargo Center. After the Jazz rolled to an easy 89-83 victory (see Instant Replay), the warning turned out to be prophesy.
Utah matched the Sixers in scoring in the paint, second-chance points and fast-break points, which took away the Sixers’ ability to control the pace. That turned it into a top-of-the-stat-sheet game, which rarely bodes well for the Sixers these days.
With a game-high 25 points from Gordon Hayward and double-doubles for Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert prominently displayed at the top of the page, Utah gave the Sixers their fourth loss in a row and ninth in the last 10 games.
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Since the trade deadline, the Sixers are 1-8 and are being outscored 103.7 to 95.1 per night.
“It’s a combination of giving Utah credit and one of those nights,” head coach Brett Brown said after the loss.
“Defensively we have no regrets. We really struggled offensively.”
Strangely, the Sixers trailed by as many as 14 late in the fourth quarter even though many of the stat-sheet digits seemed to favor them. For instance, the Sixers turned it over just 13 times and had 22 assists on 32 field goals.
Plus, Nerlens Noel and Thomas Robinson posted double-doubles with great efficiency. Noel went for 10 points with 11 boards and six steals, while Robinson got 11 points and 12 rebounds in 15 minutes.
Not bad.
But it was big numbers like a 36.4 percent shooting percentage were too much to overcome for the Sixers. Ultimately the most important number on the stat sheet is baskets and the Sixers didn’t shoot well.
“I thought we should have been a lot more fluid on offense and hit guys when they were open,” Noel said. “We need to be fluid and not drive into the post-ups and be a lot more steady. I thought we a bit rushed and I think we let their defense rattle us a little bit during certain periods of the game.”
The Sixers were clearly rattled during the third quarter when they shot 5 for 18 from the field and just 1 for 6 from the foul line. Through the first six minutes of the third quarter, the Sixers shot 3 for 15 and opened the final quarter by shooting 1 for 7.
Veteran Jason Richardson went 0 for 10 from the field a game after lighting it up for 29 points against Oklahoma City, while top scorer Robert Covington came off the bench to shoot 1 for 8 for five points in 18 minutes. Point guard Isaiah Canaan scored a team-high 16 points, but he needed 15 shots to get there.
“They’re defense was very good,” Brown said. “But we missed a lot of shots that our shooters usually have a better percentage of making if you look at what they have been doing recently. I give Utah’s defense credit — for them to score 89 points isn’t a bad defensive night on our part, but we struggled with making shots.”
As it goes in basketball, a rough night shooting the ball has a way of deflating the team’s effort. But chalk that up to a learning experience for Brown’s team that was stripped bare again after the trade deadline.
Perhaps the fluidity Noel was talking about will be found when the Sixers get to know each other a little better?
The opportunity to get better acquainted comes quickly for the Sixers, who return to action Saturday night against the NBA’s best-record team, Atlanta. The homestand continues next week when Chicago, Sacramento and Brooklyn come to town.