Maxey’s 29 Points Not Enough — Sixers Handled by Kings 108-96

The 76ers and the Kings went at it on late-night TV, each team fighting for playoff seeding in opposite conferences. The 76ers still without Joel Embiid were also lacking SG Kelly Oubre Jr against the West’s 6th seed in Sacramento. Let’s break down this critical loss for the Sixers.

The first quarter was the Tyrese Maxey show. The first 16 points of the game all belonged to the 23-year-old Point Guard. When all was said and done he found himself with 21 points in just 12 minutes, putting his mark in the history books with the 3rd most 1st quarter points in team history. The entire quarter he went back and forth with Keegan Murray who had 17 1st quarter points of his own. Despite Maxey quite literally doing everything the Kings held a 31-25 lead in front of their home crowd when the quarter ended.

With Tyrese playing all 12 1st quarter minutes he would be held to 6 in the 2nd quarter meaning scoring would have to be passed off to the rest of the team. The non-Tyrese Maxey minutes would prove pivotal in the outcome of the game with the leading scorer in the 2nd quarter being Tobias Harris with just 6 points. The Kings lead widened to 11 with a 60-49 score halfway through.

The Kings’ defense had the 76ers in a prison cell to begin the second half allowing just 20 3rd quarter points. Tyrese Maxey played all 12 minutes but was scoreless and when he’s not going, the whole team isn’t. The pure ineffectiveness of the offense in the 3rd quarter makes this feel like a good time to mention that with Joel Embiid the 76ers have been held under 100 points just twice this season. This is the 11th time this year they’ve been held under 100 points without him.

Sacramento’s starters were pulled not long after gaining their largest lead of the night at 22 points just above halfway through the final quarter and Nick Nurse followed suit. The offense struggled all night with a good chunk of the 96 points being in garbage time with starters out. Buddy Hield had 7 points on 9 shots, Tobias Harris had 12 points on 15 shots, Cam Payne had 8 on 10 shots, and Kyle Lowry barely recorded any stats with 3 points on just 4 shots. Tyrese Maxey was the only 76er who showed up tonight.

All of this comes 24 hours after beating the Clippers seemingly easily. The difference between these 2 games? Tyrese Maxey didn’t have to do it all. He had Cam Payne drop 23 for him for god sake. The point is that Tyrese Maxey is a fantastic player, but he can only do so much when his next leading scorer is Tobias Harris with 12 points.

The last time I wrote about the Sixers was their win over the Hornets. I concluded by talking about the brutal stretch in the schedule they were about to enter. So far they’re 2-3 with the Clippers tomorrow night once again. With no set timetable for Joel Embiid’s return, but an expectation it may be able to come before playoff time the 76ers need to find a way to hold their own in the standings until help arrives. They’re still neck and neck with the Heat who sit as the 7th seed while the Sixers are at the 8 seed and both teams trail the Pacers by 2 wins.

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