Utah Jazz right the rebounding wrongs, hold off Philadelphia 76ers

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz were unhappy.

After losing their last two games on the road thanks in large part to allowing the Sacramento Kings and LA Clippers to grab a bunch of offensive rebounds, the Jazz returned home and focused in Tuesday’s practice on how they could improve in that area.

It would have priority anyway, but the fact that Wednesday night’s game came against one of the best rebounding teams in the NBA, the Philadelphia 76ers, made the matter all the more urgent.

Utah responded in a big way, out-rebounding a huge 76ers team 50-42 (including a 14-7 advantage on the offensive glass) and then held off a fourth-quarter rally en route to a 106-104 victory.

“The big thing is that we rebounded the ball,” said Jazz big man Rudy Gobert, who finished with 16 boards, 12 defensive and four offensive. “It was a big point of emphasis, especially coming after the two losses we had. It was key for us. They are the best defensive rebounding team in the league, and we beat them.”

Added Utah head coach Quin Snyder: “Usually when you have a team like ours who has character, when something’s taken from you, it brings your attention to what you had to do . . . I think we had great urgency on the boards tonight. Obviously it was something that our guys internalized.”

Still, after building a lead as large as 13 points in the third quarter, the Jazz had to sweat things out a bit down the stretch as Philadelphia crept back in when Utah’s offense hit a rough patch. 

With 1:39 remaining and the Jazz clinging to a 103-101 lead, Bojan Bogdanovic came up above the break to set a screen for Donovan Mitchell. Instead of fully setting the screen to give Mitchell a chance to drive, however, Bogdanovic slipped it as the 76ers came to double-team Mitchell.

That gave Mitchell an easy pass to Bogdanovic, who got it, squared up and made a wide-open 3-pointer, which went a long way in putting the game out of reach in Utah’s favor.

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“I just read it because I saw that they were double Donovan a few times before I slipped the screen,” Bogdanovic said. “He made a great read; I was wide open for a 3.”

That wound up being Mitchell’s eighth assist of the night as he had a heavier workload at point guard with Mike Conley playing more off the ball. Mitchell also finished with a team-high 24 points on 10-of-23 shooting. Bogdanovic added 20 points.

Philadelphia big man Joel Embiid led all scorers with 27 points and nearly willed the 76ers to the comeback victory after Ben Simmons left the contest in the second quarter because of a shoulder injury.

Brett Brown, Philadelphia’s head coach, felt Simmons’ absence was most apparent on the boards, but said, “I give Utah credit. We got to do better.”

After a back-and-forth first half in which the Jazz held a 58-56 advantage going into the locker room, they built their big lead on the concept of turning defense into offense. At the 7:21 mark of the third quarter and with Utah up 68-63, 76ers big man Al Horford missed a layup thanks to excellent Utah defense, and Bogdanovic got the rebound and led the break, finding Mitchell for a wide open 3-pointer.

A few possessions later, Philadelphia rookie Matisse Thybulle drove into the lane, where Gobert was waiting for him, resulting in a Thybulle turnover. Conley hit another 3-pointer off a Bogdanovic pass, which stretched the Jazz lead to 11, 74-63.

“We controlled the boards and had a couple easy, easy wide open 3s on the fast break,” Bogdanovic said.

Players said postgame they knew the 76ers would make a run, but Conley pointed to the past two games in which Utah couldn’t close the deal as learning opportunities to get it right Wednesday.

“Tonight we took what the defense was giving us,” Conley said. “It shows the growth we’ve had in just a matter of a few days.”