The Philadelphia 76ers will look to keep up their recent strong play when they visit the Utah Jazz on Saturday night.
Philadelphia has had a few days of rest since earning a solid 118-114 victory over the Boston Celtics on Christmas Day. That win was their eighth in the last 11 games, bringing back optimism for the season.
“We got a high ceiling,” said 76ers star Joel Embiid after scoring 27 points and grabbing nine rebounds against the Celtics. “It’s all about us putting it together. I don’t think that was close to our best basketball, but we got a pretty good chance. So it’s all about looking for some luck, and staying healthy.”
After a tough 3-14 start, the Sixers have been on a roll, winning two in a row and four of their last five games.
The game against the Celtics was only the sixth time this season that Embiid, Paul George, and Tyrese Maxey were all available to play together. Since they’re just 1 1/2 games out of play-in contention as of Friday, they’re confident in their chances if they can keep their key players healthy.
Maxey had 33 points and 12 assists against Boston, and Caleb Martin added seven 3-pointers and 23 points.
Maxey said the 76ers are “a lot different” from a month ago when they were near the bottom of the Eastern Conference.
“But I said it back then, just give us some time. It was difficult because guys were in and out and we finally thought that we were going to have everybody playing. I got hurt. That sucks. You know what I mean?” Maxey said.
“I had a little rhythm going a little bit and then I get hurt and then we got to restart, figure it all out. I come back, Joel gets hurt. We got to figure it all out again.
“I think the biggest thing that we’ve really done is we’ve come together a lot more,” Maxey added. “I feel like we had a lot of new guys. I don’t know how many new people we have, like seven or something like that, and it’s difficult. You don’t know how you want to play. You don’t know what combinations go with each other. I think we’re finally figuring that out.”
The Jazz have only won three of their last 13 games, the same stretch in which Philadelphia has turned things around, but they see progress in their rebuilding efforts.
After winning back-to-back games for the first time this season, they ended a five-game road trip with tough losses to Cleveland and Portland. They were competitive in both games. Utah was tied with Portland late in Thursday’s game after Lauri Markkanen hit a late 3-pointer, but Portland’s Scoot Henderson made a game-winning shot with just a tenth of a second left.
Jazz coach Will Hardy had positive words about Markkanen, who scored 25 points against Portland, and the contributions from the team’s three rookies: Cody Williams, Isaiah Collier, and Kyle Filipowski.
“The most important thing for me is building those foundational habits of competitiveness every night,” Hardy said. “I’m happy with all their progress.”
