Sixers lock down Kings in second half on way to solid road win

Among the many positive changes from last year’s Sixers to the 2020-2021 iteration is their vastly improved play on the road. A year ago, they were world beaters in the friendly confines of the Wells Fargo Center, going 31-4. Away from home, they were 12-26.

With Tuesday’s 119-111 win in Sacramento over the Kings, the Sixers have already recorded 7 road wins in just 12 tries, greater than half of last season’s total. It was their 9th win in 11 games overall, and fourth straight on the road. More importantly, their record now stands at 18-7, best in the Eastern Conference by 1.5 games over the red hot Milwaukee Bucks.

Joel Embiid, as he has done so often this season, paced the Sixers in points with 25. The big man was not as aggressive as he tends to be in terms of looking for shots—his 15 field goal attempts were about two less than his average—but he still worked his way to the line 14 times, where he converted 13. He also gathered a season-high 17 rebounds, dished out 6 assists, and racked up two blocks and steals apiece. So much has been made of his scoring all year, but Embiid boasts as complete of a two-way game as any center in the league.

Tobias Harris joined Embiid in collecting a double-double, scoring 22 and hauling in 10 boards. It was his third straight double-double and fourth in six games. The 6’8” forward has really stepped up his rebounding of late, averaging 8.4 over his last 10. Behind Embiid and Harris, the Sixers utterly dominated the glass over the Kings, outrebounding them by a staggering 59-39 margin. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they won second chance points 15-2 as well.

Ben Simmons added another well-rounded performance with 14 points, 7 rebounds and 9 assists against just 2 turnovers. The jumbo guard has really gotten into a nice groove picking his spots as a playmaker—through his first 12 games this year, he coughed the ball up 4.2 times en route to his 8.0 assists. In his last ten, the assists have held steady, but he’s only turned it over 2.7 times.

Perhaps the best takeaway in this one was Seth Curry’s breakout performance. The 30-year-old lit the Kings up for 22 points on 7-of-13 shooting, including 4-of-6 from deep. Curry had struggled mightily since returning from a 6-game absence after testing positive for COVID-19, averaging just 7.8 points on dreadful 38.2/33.3/100.0 shooting splits across nine games. Getting him back on track would be a boon for the Sixers.

This game, like many for the Sixers recently, was a tale of two halves. In the first, they had every chance to put the Kings away early. Despite struggling to contain a scorching De’Aaron Fox, who went for 15 in the opening quarter, the Sixers took advantage of statistically the league’s worse defense and outscored Sacramento 42-32.

They extended the lead to 14 in the opening minute of the second before the cracks started to show. Buddy Hield caught fire and buried 4 threes as part of his 14 in the quarter, and Fox kept the pressure on with 8 more points. That duo would combine for 55 in the game. The Sixers explosive opening quarter also faded into a distant memory, as they scored just 18 points over the final 10 plus minutes of the half. Sacramento won the period 39-24 to head into the break on top 71-66.

But in the second half, the Sixers shut the Kings down completely. Sacramento scored just 40 points total in the third and fourth quarters on 29.4% shooting overall, and only 13.6% on 3-pointers. That defense gave the offense time to do just enough to put the Sixers ahead for good. The game-changing stretch came in the middle of the fourth, when the Sixers staged a 14-2 run that turned a 4-point deficit into a 107-99 lead they wouldn’t relinquish the rest of the way.

The Sixers next play the Blazers (13-10) in Portland on Thursday at 10 p.m. It will be a revenge game for the Sixers—the Blazers demolished them 121-105 in Philadelphia just last Thursday. Both teams were without their star point guards in that one, Simmons sat with a tight calf for the Sixers, and Damian Lillard was out with an abdominal strain for Portland. The two All-Star hopefuls figure to be active for the coming game.