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Tonight at 10:30pm EST, the Sixers will take on the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City for the second of two scheduled meetings between the squads on the 2018-19 season.
The Sixers are coming off a heartbreaking overtime loss to the Celtics on Christmas Night, wherein the team shot a paltry 41% from the field. Sporting a 5-5 record over their last 10 games, the Sixers are tasked with staying afloat in a top-heavy Eastern Conference as an extremely difficult winter schedule awaits.
For the Jazz, it has been a mediocre and disappointing season to date. At 17-18, they sit at 11th place in the Western Conference. The team enters Thursday on the heels of its Christmas Night victory over the Portland Trail Blazers, where they held the opposition to only 96 points in a double-digit victory.
Tonight’s contest is ripe with intriguing storylines among the players involved. First, we have Ben Simmons vs. Donovan Mitchell. Simmons, of course, edged out Mitchell last season for the Rookie of the Year award. The race was hotly contested by the Louisville alum, as he and Reebok embarked on a definitely cool, absolutely not lame, campaign to allege that Mitchell should win ROTY — not because he’s better than Ben (he’s not), but because Ben should be disqualified from the race because of the tremendous advantage he reaped the year prior by breaking his foot. RIP Shawn Long.
The man tasked with guarding Mitchell figures to be headband brother Jimmy Butler.
Then, we have the matchup in the middle: Joel Embiid vs. Rudy Gobert. Never one to shy away from a challenge, JoJo will surely be motivated to meet the tall task (pun!) of dominating Gobert tonight on both ends. More of this, please:
Joel Embiid vs Rudy Gobert
— Def Pen Hoops (@DefPenHoops) November 17, 2018
HERE. FOR. THIS. pic.twitter.com/taynMGxf9B
So start loading up (brotha) on coffee, it’s gonna be a late one.
Game Info:
Who: Philadelphia 76ers @ Utah Jazz
When: 10:30pm EST
Where: Vivint Smart Home Arena, Salt Lake City, Utah
Watch: TNT, NBC Sports Philadelphia
Listen: 97.5 The Fanatic
Follow: @Liberty_Ballers