A win is a win?

Well, they may lose as bad as tanking teams, but at least they can still beat tanking teams.

The Sixers escaped with a 106-102 win over the Utah Jazz Wednesday night.

They are now 34-28, still a game up on the Orlando Magic for the sixth seed but tied in the loss column.

Despite some rough plays down the stretch, Tyrese Maxey led the Sixers with 25 points and six assists shooting 8-of-22 from the floor. Jabari Walker, hustling his ass off, put up 20 for the second straight night finishing with 22 points shooting 7-of-12 from the field along with 10 rebounds. Keyonte George led all scorers with 30.

The Sixers were without Joel Embiid (oblique strain), Paul George (suspension), VJ Edgecombe (lumbar contusion) and Kelly Oubre Jr. who missed his second straight game with an illness.

Here are some thoughts at the buzzer.

First Quarter

• Maxey made his first shot of the game, knocking down a three off the catch, but that didn’t exactly set the tone for the Sixers’ offense. Plenty of isos resulted in just one and-1 for Dominick Barlow, a play he banged up his shoulder on. Trendon Watford threw up an ugly shot that missed the rim on top of a bad turnover trying to get a skip pass to the corner.
• A sign of how ugly this one was Utah’s starting center Kyle Filipowski had to sit with three fouls less than six minutes into the game. While neither offense looked good, the Sixers’ bigs found ways to be productive. Both Watford and Barlow did a good job using their length to protect the rim, Watford picking up two blocks in the first. Barlow was also making good reads playing out of the high post against Utah’s zone.
• Justin Edwards being one of the first subs to check in wasn’t surprising given the injury report, but Tyrese Martin being the other was. Martin missed his only shot attempt of the quarter and threw a bad cross-court pass that turned into a pick-6. Edwards though hit his first corner three and found Walker for another. The Sixers had turned things around to shoot 40% from the field and from three, but Cody Williams sinking a three of his own at the buzzer cut their lead to seven.

Second Quarter

• It was good to see Walker build off his 20-point performance in garbage time. It’s easy to notice when he has the hot hand from three, but the hustle plays he makes for this team are desperately needed at the moment. Plays like hanging on island and forcing a stop against the smaller Isaiah Collier, or drawing a foul trying to grab an offensive rebound.
• Both offenses stalled again after the Walker heater. Quentin Grimes didn’t exactly snap into a rhythm right away, but the layups he was able to cobble together, mostly in transition, were enough to briefly extend the Sixers’ lead. He clearly felt more and more comfortable with each one, taking advantage of an open drive to throw one down over Oscar Tshiebwe.

• Upon returning to the game Maxey capped off a solid individual half. The opponent is what it is but he did a good job of navigating longer, taller defenders while also drawing contact. His last two attempts from deep were no good though as the Sixers as a team couldn’t close the half well. That was in part due to more struggles from Andre Drummond, who was surrendering rebounds to Mo Bamba and Ace Bailey on one end and getting called for illegal screens on the other. After George split a pair at the line the Sixers went into the break up by five.

Third Quarter

• Maxey’s floater to open the second half didn’t fool anyone — this was still the third quarter Sixers. Utah responded with a 10-0 run to take their first lead of the night. He had been fairly bottled up in the first half but George started to spring loose moving off the ball and converted on his open looks.
• Stops continued to come at a premium for the Sixers, but at least they found consistent offense for a couple possessions with Watford successfully backing down Filipowski. The backcourt got oddly passive during this stretch — Maxey went over five minutes in between shot attempts.
• After the first half he had, it was pretty insane that Walker wasn’t out there to start the second. He immediately grabbed a putback basket when he did finally check back in, a rare sign of energy. It’s surprising how rigid Nick Nurse has been here given his reputation in Toronto. On top of not riding the hot hand in Walker, Tyrese Martin checked back in at the same point he did in the first half despite a rough first shift. Martin at least had a better go of it this time, getting to the basket once for a layup and hitting Drummond with a dump off. Another lob to Bamba though kept the Jazz in front by one entering the fourth.

Fourth Quarter

• The decision to go back to Martin did age well despite this blog’s criticisms. He nailed two more threes to start the fourth, but those were the only points the Sixers were able to muster up in the brief minutes Maxey sat.
• A rotation decision that was even more questionable and did not pay off was sending Kyle Lowry out for his second half shift as well. This team just has too many limited offensive players at the moment to play a guard that hardly looks at the basket.
• Perhaps the Sixers were so surprised the Jazz put George back in the game they went into some sort of shock. Why else would they help off of him when he’s one pass away while he’s as scorching hot as he was? In all seriousness, it’s fine if the Sixers lost a game here and there due to their play style, but their style doesn’t make a ton of sense and they’ve lost more games than that because of it. Leaving NBA players open to shoot is and has not been a viable strategy in some time.
• A challenge that swung possession back to the Sixers after another George three was exactly what they needed, and somehow they took advantage of the momentum. Maxey tried to turn the pace and kept going to the basket quickly. He actually missed more often than not but putbacks from Grimes and Adem Bona helped tie the game. After working their way to tie it back up, Maxey lost the ball and Collier quickly took it the other way to put the Jazz back up by two.
• Grimes was able to knife his way through Utah’s zone and tie the game back up again with a layup. They finally caught a break on the other end with George missing a rushed three. Grimes drove again on the following possession and drew a foul, converting both to put the Sixers up with 16 seconds remaining. The ensuing Jazz possession ended with an open kickout to Filipowski but it missed. Fittingly it was Walker who secured the rebound and nail two free throws to ice the game.