Utah @ Philadelphia preview

Last Meeting ( Nov 7, 2017 ) Philadelphia 104, Utah 97

The Philadelphia 76ers showed they could play with the defending NBA champions and maybe even play better -- at least for one half. The 76ers will try to put a full four quarters together when they continue a six-game homestand by hosting the Utah Jazz on Monday.

Philadelphia put up 47 first-quarter points against the Golden State Warriors on Saturday and were up 74-52 at the half before surrendering 47 points in the third quarter and going on to suffer a 124-116 setback. "You've got to play for 48 minutes," 76ers center Joel Embiid told reporters. "A basketball game is 48 minutes, so you've got to come out and play for 48 minutes. You can't just play for 24 minutes." The Utah Jazz put together their best 48 minutes of the season with a 125-85 win at Orlando on Saturday that gave them a chance to come away even on the four-game road trip after dropping the first two at New York and Brooklyn. "It's nice to see some of the work and the emphasis that we've been doing begin to show some results," Utah coach Quin Snyder told reporters. "I think our team earned the right to play well (Saturday)."

TV: 7 p.m. ET, AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain (Utah), NBCSN Philadelphia

ABOUT THE JAZZ (7-10): Utah dropped seven of its previous eight games before putting it all together against the Magic, including a 104-97 home loss to the 76ers on Nov. 7. The Jazz were 0-6 on the road prior to Saturday and surrendered an average of 112 points in their first two games of the current trip - a rarity for a team that led the NBA in scoring defense last season. “It was a team effort defensively,” power forward Derick Favors told the Salt Lake Tribune of Saturday's triumph. “We knew they were a good team. They have a lot of players who can make plays offensively. So, we tried to make them take tough shots and keep them out of the paint and contest every shot. We limited them in transition as well."

ABOUT THE 76ERS (8-7): Philadelphia began a five-game west coast trip with that win in Utah on ended it with a pair of wins in Los Angeles, and the fatigue of coming back across the country might have gotten to the young squad on Saturday. "I always worry when you come back from a West Coast road trip," 76ers coach Brett Brown told reporters. "Some of it's probably paranoia. I bet some of it's fact. We're not going to make any excuses. We put ourselves in a position to compete." One player who didn't show signs of fatigue was rookie point guard Ben Simmons, who scored 23 points on 11-of-15 shooting and added 12 assists for his 10th double-double.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Jazz SG Rodney Hood is averaging 26 points over the last three games, including a pair of 30-point efforts.

2. 76ers F Dario Saric is 10-of-35 from the floor over the last three games, including 2-of-16 from 3-point range.

3. Philadelphia snapped a nine-game losing streak in the series with the win at Utah on Nov. 7.

PREDICTION: 76ers 108, Jazz 99