Maynor played a masterful floor game, collecting 13 points and 11 assists and only two turnovers in 36 minutes, while Matthews posted 16 points, including 3-for-4 from beyond the arc. All numbers were career highs for the rooks. As a team, Utah had 32 assists on 42 baskets, just 12 turnovers and outrebounded the Sixers by 44-33.
Carlos Boozer led a balanced Jazz scoring attack with 24 points, and he also grabbed 12 rebounds. Mehmet Okur and Paul Milsap had 15 each, while Ronnie Brewer scored 14, and Andrei Kirilenko chipped in 13 for the Jazz, which improved to 4-5.
"We have to give a bigger effort out there," said a visibly dejected Elton Brand, who had 11 points for the Sixers. "One through five, they were just pushing and banging and running their sets. From the second quarter on, they bumped our lead and pushed, and we didn't push them back hard enough.
"It's early, so you'd rather lose now than later, but we've got to get it together. We have to find a way to get better. We can't do that, especially at home. Granted, they outplayed us, but they're not that much better than us. Not what the score indicated. Not at all."
They were on this night, particularly in the middle two quarters when the Jazz outscored the Sixers by a 62-37 margin. Just to add more insult to injury, the Sixers scored one point during a 6-minute, 51-second period that overlapped the third and fourth quarter. During that time, the Jazz took its biggest lead of the night at 95-69, and the already-frustrated Sixers faithful, which was tabbed at 10,738, howled its disapproval.
The Jazz offense seemed to flow very smoothly without Williams, who is averaging 20.4 points and 9.9 assists. There were backdoor cuts for layups, wide-open jumpers and perfectly executed pick-and-rolls.
