March 26, 2024
Sergio Estrada/USA TODAY Sports
Tyrese Maxey dazzled early, posting 21 points in the first quarter, but only scored eight more for the remainder of the game.
Looking to finish off their West Coast road trip with a win, the Sixers took on the Sacramento Kings Monday night. After an eventful first quarter, the Kings took complete control of the game and handled the Sixers with ease en route a 108-96 victory. Here is what jumped out from this roadie's finale:
The Sixers looked lifeless in the opening minutes of the game, as Sacramento quickly jumped out to a 13-5 lead. With the Sixers on the second leg of a road back-to-back and final game of a lengthy, distant road trip, this had all of the makings of a total blowout from start to finish.
Then Maxey decided to take over.
Maxey scored the Sixers' first 16 points, at one point in that run putting them in front. He finished the first quarter with a remarkable line of 21 points on 7-11 shooting from the field, including 4-6 shooting from beyond the arc -- including a ridiculously deep step-back three which stunned the Sacramento crowd.
"They let me play a lot of one-on-one," Maxey said of his run after the game. "I was just trying to be aggressive for my team, and that's what I did."
However, the Sixers still finished the first quarter trailing Sacramento, 31-25, thanks in large part to a tremendous effort from Murray, the Kings' impressive second-year wing, who scored 17 points on eight shots in the quarter. No player other than Maxey and Murray had more than four points in the entire quarter.
Maxey finished the first half with 26 points on just 13 shots. Unfortunately for him, just about every other Sixer shot themself in the foot. They made costly error after costly error: they were called for three illegal screens in the first half alone, KJ Martin picked up four fouls in seven minutes, head coach Nick Nurse oddly used his challenge on a relatively innocuous out-of-bounds call in the second quarter (and lost the challenge) and Maxey was assessed a technical foul after being called for a foul that likely would have been overturned had Nurse not lost his earlier challenge.
Given how many miscues they made, the Sixers had no business even being remotely competitive by intermission. And that is why the aforementioned Maxey heater was so important.
Oubre took a hard fall on his shoulder during the Sixers' win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday afternoon, but returned to the game soon after and looked fine for the remainder of the contest. However, on Monday he appeared on the injury report with shoulder soreness, and was ruled out about an hour before tip-off.
With Joel Embiid still sidelined, Maxey is desperate for consistent supporting work, and Oubre has stepped up as the team's secondary scoring option more often than anyone else -- including, most notably, Tobias Harris, whose struggles resumed in this one. Without Oubre's constant, effective rim pressure, Maxey was stranded on an island from an offensive perspective: Harris had a brutal showing, Buddy Hield failed to overcome the heavy boos raining down from his former fanbase and Cam Payne finally came crashing back down to Earth.
"He's obviously been giving us a scoring punch and he's a two-way player," Nurse said after the game. "Not getting much out of a couple of our starters there offensively obviously was a struggle."
The Sixers signed DJ Wilson to a 10-day contract ahead of Sunday's game, and Nurse decided to give him some rotation minutes in the second half in Sacramento after Bamba failed to make an impact on the game. Wilson, who does not boast the size and strength of a typical center, is primarily utilized as a small-ball five whose athleticism allows him to switch on the perimeter when necessary. Upon checking in, Wilson knocked down triples on each of his first two offensive possessions, and later threw down an alley-oop dunk off a lob from Kyle Lowry and had an emphatic blocked shot at the rim before also blocking a three-point attempt.
"He was excellent," Nurse said after the game. "He played a long stretch there, and obviously played very well. I thought he did just about everything right. He fought really hard. I thought he looked good."
Wilson's path to consistent playing time is difficult to visualize, but on a night in which Bamba showcased all of his most significant flaws, it didn't hurt to give Wilson a look.
Buddy Hield’s struggles continued on Monday, and the Sacramento crowd enjoyed that: Hield's departure from the Kings in 2022 was messy, and the fans showered him with boos as a result.
"It's just all fun," Hield said of his cold reception. "It's really not that serious to me."
What was almost serious was when Hield had an awkward landing in the final moments of the game and limped to the locker room. Hield immediately took an X-Ray, and the results were negative -- it appears the sharpshooter has avoided any sort of serious injury.
The Sixers played four games against four very good teams in this stretch, and given their several noteworthy absences, just splitting the four games and going 2-2 would have been a win. But they simply did not have the firepower to keep up with the Kings for 48 minutes, as their offense followed a similar script to the team's loss against the Los Angeles Lakers in the second game of the trip: a decent start, a shaky middle and a brutal end.
In retrospect, the Lakers loss is the one that should sting the most: the Sixers failed to take advantage of a shaky LeBron James performance, and in doing so dropped a game that hurts quite a bit. Things are not getting any easier: the Sixers return home for a rematch against the Clippers on Wednesday night before returning to the road and facing the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Embiid cannot return soon enough for these Sixers.
