The Philadelphia 76ers will face the Utah Jazz tonight in the final game of this year's Utah Summer League. A win tonight would give the team a final record of 2-1, with one win over the Boston Celtics, and a loss to the San Antonio Spurs in the summer league opener.
Philadelphia is expected to trot out the same lineup as the other two games, which includes T.J. McConnell, Jordan McRae, Jerami Grant, Furkan Aldemir, and Jahlil Okafor. Aldemir stole the show against the Celtics, finishing with 11 points on 3-5 shooting from beyond the arc, as well as 14 rebounds. It's way, way, way too early to even consider this translating to legitimate NBA action, but Furk's ability to shoot from deep would really be awesome. He'd allow the Sixers to continue to pair him with Jahlil Okafor in the frontcourt; Okafor gets the space to work from the low block, and Aldemir can bring down the rebounds. Everyone's happy.
Okafor shot just 5-12 on Tuesday, finishing with 13 points and 9 rebounds, but it's hard to be upset with that stat line. He's still working on getting back into the groove of playing five-on-five basketball. The thing I care most about is his free throw shooting, and thus far he's shot a combined 3-10.
On the flip side, the Jazz will be trotting out a pretty talent barren team this evening. Reports out of Utah state Dante Exum, Rodney Hood, and Grant Jerrett are all out, which is a bummer. Hood and Exum are second and third respectively in points per game, and would've been fun to watch. Rodney was always meant to be a Sixer.
Jahlil Okafor will be matched up against former Notre Dame big man Jack Cooley, who is an absolute load. He's averaging 9.5 points and 10.5 rebounds per game, and will be a good, physical matchup for big Jah this evening.
Tip-off is at 9 p.m., and you can catch the game on NBATV.