This, on paper, was a size mismatch. At the beginning of the game, 6-foot-4 Royce O’Neale was guarding 6-9.5 Ben Simmons, 6-0 Mike Conley was guarding 6-5 Josh Richardson, 6-1 Donovan Mitchell was guarding 6-7.5 Tobias Harris, and 6-8 Bojan Bogdanovic was guarding 6-9.25 Al Horford. The Jazz did have the advantage at center: 7-1 Rudy Gobert against 6-11.75 Joel Embiid.
But the Jazz did a pretty good job limiting the Sixers’ despite the size issues. The difficulties did creep up in one category: free throws. The Sixers went to the line 34 times tonight; Embiid had 18 of those.