Sixers tumble to the Jazz

When the 76ers look into their crystal ball, and into the immediate future, they might just see the Utah Jazz.

The Jazz are committed to rebuilding with a young, athletic team, constructed mainly through the draft. The Sixers appear to be working from the same plan.

Both the Sixers and Jazz are examples of how painstaking the process is in the NBA. The necessity of it isn't questioned, even if the methods may be.

The Jazz matched their win total from last year with Friday's 89-83 victory at the Wells Fargo Center. Utah is 25-36 with 21 games left. The Sixers are 13-49 and remain in the running for the NBA's worst record.

There are many stages for NBA teams attempting to rise from near or at the bottom, and Sixers coach Brett Brown points out that his team is trailing the Jazz in that aspect.

"I look at them as a few years ahead of us and I respect what they have done," Brown said before the game.

Knowing that free agents won't be flocking to Salt Lake City, at least while the team is rebuilding, the Jazz are hoping to stockpile young talent through the draft.

The Sixers seem inclined to do the same thing.

The most experienced Jazz players are their front-court cornerstones Gordon Hayward, who scored 25 points, and Derrick Favors, who had 15 points and 10 rebounds. Both players are in their fifth year.

This year's first-round pick, point guard Dante Exum of Australia is starting, and although he's not putting up great numbers, he's getting valuable experience.

Second-year 7-foot-1, 220-pound center Rudy Gobert has a lot of athletic ability. If he ever refines his offensive game and gains the needed strength, watch out. He had nine points and 15 rebounds.

There were pregame comparisons between Gobert and the Sixers' Nerlens Noel, another high-end athlete who has a chance to be one of the Sixers' building blocks.

If he's not, then that player wasn't on the floor since center Joel Embiid isn't expected to play this season while recovering from pre-draft foot surgery.

In the NBA, talent trumps everything, but having experience is a prerequisite to contention. The Jazz are getting it.

As for the game, Sixers guard Jason Richardson, who had 29 points in Wednesday's overtime loss at Oklahoma City, was 0 for 10 from the field. Isaiah Canaan led the Sixers with 16 points. Luc Mbah a Moute and Ish Smith had 14 points. Noel had his 10th double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds.

Sixers rookie forward Jerami Grant left the game in the third quarter with back spasms and didn't return.

The difference was the third quarter when the Jazz outscored the Sixers, 23-13. The Sixers shot 5 of 18 and just 1 of 6 from the foul line. For the game, they hit 9-of-18 free throws and 32 of 88 field-goal attempts (36.4 percent).

"They are a pretty long team and pretty good with their rotations and [they] communicate and that makes their defense effective," Noel said.

The Jazz understandably have a long way to go, but they are at a level that the Sixers hope to approach in the not-too-distant future.

"Overall, we're progressing a lot faster than people probably thought we would," Hayward said.

The Sixers no doubt will notice that progress and hope to travel a similar path.