For East Coast viewers, the 8-6 Sixers are about to start a stretch of five consecutive late-night games.
Here are the essentials for their Tuesday night matchup with the 8-5 Jazz:
- When: 10 p.m. ET with Sixers Pregame Live at 9:30 p.m.
- Where: Vivint Arena
- Broadcast: NBC Sports Philadelphia Plus
- Live stream: NBCSportsPhiladelphia.com and the MyTeams app
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And here are three storylines to watch:
Green back on the sidelines
As of Monday night, five Sixers were ruled out against Utah: Danny Green (left hamstring tightness); Joel Embiid and Matisse Thybulle (health and safety protocols); Ben Simmons (personal reasons); and Grant Riller (left knee injury recovery).
Though the injury status of a two-way player usually wouldn’t be especially pertinent for an NBA team, there’s a real chance Riller would’ve gotten minutes over the past week or so if he’d been healthy. The 24-year-old guard suffered a meniscus tear in his left knee during the preseason.
NBA
Green exited the Sixers’ loss Saturday to the Pacers in the third quarter. He missed three games with left hamstring tightness earlier this month. After having the same injury resurface, it would be surprising if the Sixers cleared him to return swiftly.
Mitchell vs. Maxey?
Though Donovan Mitchell is a very good player, the Sixers haven’t needed to worry much in past seasons about who defends him. Simmons was the obvious first choice.
Thybulle and Green would’ve been valuable options, too. But for the current version of the Sixers, there are far fewer desirable defensive matchups and no Embiid to clean up perimeter failings. It looks like Tyrese Maxey might have to guard Mitchell, unless the Sixers want to try something unconventional. Mitchell at least won’t have a major size advantage over Maxey, who’s done a strong job early this season on star scorers like Damian Lillard and Trae Young.
Through 12 games, Mitchell has averaged 25.6 points and 5.1 assists. He’s taken a career-high 10.4 three-pointers per game but only made 32.0 percent of them. His 6.8 pull-up three attempts per game rank fourth in the NBA.
The Sixers will also be wary of Jordan Clarkson, who scored 40 points last season in the game Simmons recorded a career-high 42.
Utah isn’t hot either
The Sixers and Jazz stand first and second in offensive rating, respectively.
However, neither team has experienced much success lately. The Sixers’ defeat to Indiana was their fourth straight, while Utah has dropped four of its last five.
"It's a mindset that we have to we have to find right now," Mike Conley told reporters Saturday after the Jazz lost to the Heat. "We haven't had it the last week or so, where the sense of urgency is there from the beginning, not when we're down 20, not when things are not looking good."
While the Sixers would be thrilled to build a big lead against a slow-starting Jazz team, Utah seems positioned well to start regaining positive momentum on Game 4 of a five-game homestand.