PHILADELPHIA — The Utah Jazz beat the Philadelphia 76ers 120-109 Saturday on the second night of a back-to-back.
Here’s a look inside the numbers from the Jazz’s victory:
Best performance: Lauri Markkanen led the way for the Jazz, scoring 31 points on 12-of-19 shooting to go with 13 rebounds, an assist and a block.
Worst performance: Playing without three of their starters (Joel Embiid, Tobias Harris and De’Anthony Melton), the Sixers were going to need a whole lot of guys to step up offensively and unfortunately veteran Nicolas Batum had a particularly cold night on that end. He shot 1-of-6 for just two points.
6: The Sixers committed an impressively low number of turnovers (6) and forced an impressive 24 turnovers by the Jazz.
22 and 19: Markkanen was boosted by impressive outings from both John Collins and Collin Sexton, who scored 22 and 19 points, respectively. Sexton also finished the night with 10 assists
76: Though the Jazz struggled to convert on their 3-point attempts (shooting 26.7%), they were incredibly efficient from inside the arc, going 38-of-50 on 2-point field goals — a coincidental 76%.
Best of the best: While it was Markkanen’s interior game that was working most in the first half, as the Sixers tried to keep the Jazz out of the paint in the latter half of the game the floor opened up and Markkanen adjusted, going 3-of-6 from deep in the third quarter.
Worst of the worst: The Sixers played a really tenacious defensive game but weren’t able to capitalize as much on the other side. To force 24 turnovers and record 12 steals and six blocks feels like it would lead to a win, but the Sixers turned in a loss the night after a bad loss to the Knicks.