It could have been a whole lot easier for the Sixers on Saturday night in Utah, but a win is a win – and, given the circumstances surrounding this team, a winning road trip is most certainly a positive development.
Despite opening it with a horrid loss, the Sixers officially notched a 2-1 Western Conference road trip with Saturday’s 126-116 over the Jazz in a game they probably should have been able to win without much stress. But the matchup between the shorthanded Sixers and the tanking Jazz was predictably filled with lots of transition offense, free throws, highlight-worthy plays and lowlight-worthy plays. That sort of simple game lends itself to the team with less talent sticking around, and Utah was able to lead for a significant portion of the game.
But, remember, Utah is incentivized to lose. It is attempting to safeguard a protected first-round pick from the Oklahoma City Thunder (does that sound familiar?), so it was no surprise that by the time the buzzer sounded, the Sixers had emerged victorious.
Takeaways from another Sixers win in which they did not escape unscathed:
Sixers finally find themselves… with some help
The Sixers had a balanced offensive attack early, and it felt like that would be more than enough. VJ Edgecombe was good in the opening frame, so was Quentin Grimes, and Cam Payne provided a useful spark with 11 quick points. But after playing the best game of his NBA career on Thursday night, Justin Edwards had a rough night on Saturday. Dominick Barlow exited the game early. The Sixers were prompting easy Utah offense with careless turnovers:
The Sixers committed 10 turnovers in the first half of their road game against the Utah Jazz on Saturday night; many of them were brutal, unforced errors. A sample of some of the turnovers: pic.twitter.com/mlIeMO0eAm
— Adam Aaronson’s clips (@SixersAdamClips) March 22, 2026
Forced into a more prominent role, the struggling Trendon Watford shook off a few brutal turnovers and found his groove again, giving the Sixers a helpful scoring punch even as their defense continued to provide shaky results. The Sixers were able to overcome poor three-point shooting and their many careless turnovers by living at the line, but Utah also shot tons of free throws to keep pace despite its own inaccuracy from beyond the arc.
The Sixers led by a point entering the final frame, and it was obvious that Utah was going to pull out all of the stops to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Rookie Ace Bailey, who scored a career-high 33 points in his last game, was outstanding against the team he refused to work out for before the 2025 NBA Draft.
When the third quarter ended, Bailey had logged 29 minutes, scoring 25 points, grabbing six rebounds, dishing out four assists and collecting a career-high five blocks. His size, length and athleticism were on full display… and then he sat and watched for nearly eight minutes. Jazz head coach Will Hardy did not bring him back in until the Sixers were back in front, playing in a lineup that did not have enough manpower to come back.
Still, inside of the six-minute mark of the fourth quarter, the tanking Jazz led the Sixers. Baskets from Adem Bona and Grimes put the Sixers ahead, and it once again became clear that Grimes was comfortable shouldering the bulk of the offensive workload in crunch time. Utah did not have anyone who could check the Sixers’ leading scorer, who looked explosive inside the arc and was getting to the rim or drawing fouls at will. He posted another outstanding fourth quarter to put it away, but it was really Utah management who put the game away by ensuring its players could not take it.
So, perhaps it would be best if nobody throws a parade to celebrate the Sixers winning Saturday’s game. But the Sixers need any victory they can possibly get, so nobody should complain, either.
Dominick Barlow goes down with ankle sprain
Given how many roster spots have been tied to players incapable of consistently producing on the court, it is fair to suggest this Sixers season never would have gotten off the ground in a meaningful way if not for the team’s shrewd two-way signings of Barlow and Jabari Walker, both of whom inked standard contracts last month. Barlow has been the true gem; he has spent the majority of the season starting at power forward and doing a solid job on both ends of the floor.
Four minutes into Saturday’s game, though, Barlow went down in pain with a left ankle sprain. He checked out at the next dead ball and did not return. Barlow has been a tough soldier this year; he missed a few weeks early in the season with an elbow issue which forced him to put his arm in a cast that kept his arm perfectly straight and has taken a noteworthy number of hard falls, including one causing him significant pain in his lower back.
If Barlow is to miss time beyond Saturday’s game, the most obvious option to help the Sixers get by will be Walker. While they are completely different players whose strengths and weaknesses present themselves in very different ways, Barlow and Walker check and do not check a lot of the same boxes. They are reasonably similar in that sense.
Walker, whose power game on the offensive glass is a bit more effective than Barlow’s very good spatial awareness and length, is also an unreliable three-point shooter, though he probably has much more hope of eventually becoming a decent option from long range in the NBA than Barlow does. Watford, whose significant slump came to somewhat of a halt in Utah with his helpful scoring binge, would also inherit some of Barlow’s minutes; Watford was the 10th and final member of Nurse’s initial rotation on Saturday and started the second half in Barlow’s place.
The real answer to the question of who would replace Barlow’s minutes, though, is the player who will likely be starting at the four over him if this team ever gets back to full strength. There is only one game left on Paul George’s suspension, and Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said earlier this week that George would have no restrictions upon his return. The nine-time All-Star has had nearly two months to do nothing but work on his body; if the Sixers cannot push the envelope with his workload now they never will be able to do so.
Of course, the Sixers’ hope will be that Barlow avoids any sort of long-term absence; they are dealing with enough of those already. He is not as important to this team as he was earlier in the season, but the more rotation players are sidelined, the more valuable it is to have players that can be trusted. Nurse rightfully trusts Barlow.
Odds and ends
Some additional notes:
• Kennedy Chandler, a former second-round pick with modest NBA experience under his belt, played a ton of preseason minutes for the Sixers this season on an Exhibit 10 contract. He joined the Delaware Blue Coats, where months of very strong production earned him the opportunity to return to the NBA for regular-season action. Chandler signed a 10-day deal with the Jazz, and on Saturday night he made his first appearance with Utah against the team whose opportunity to play helped him land a greater chance at minutes. Before his first stint of minutes had ended, Chandler had registered a new career-high in points.
• Edgecombe took a hit to the face late in the first half and went back to the locker room, with one shot from the NBC Sports Philadelphia broadcast showing him looking somewhat wobbly. But Edgecombe must have passed concussion protocol (if he even had to go through it at all), as he was back on the floor for the start of the second half.
• Entering Saturday’s action, the Sixers were the Eastern Conference’s No. 8 seed, but only 1.5 games separated the Toronto Raptors, owners of the No. 5 seed, with the Atlanta Hawks, owners of the No. 9 seed. Every game matters down the stretch, and that is why it is terrific news for the Sixers that as they were facing the Jazz, both the Orlando Magic and Miami Heat lost on game-winners.
Up next: The Sixers will return home, and on Monday night they play host to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Jared McCain will be making his return to the Xfinity Mobile Arena. Will Joel Embiid do the same?
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