The Sacramento Kings began their 5-game January road trip with one of the easiest back-to-back sets in NBA history – victories over the Detroit Pistons and Charlotte Hornets. The competition was supposed to get substantially tougher on Friday night in Philadelphia, but Nick Nurse’s 76ers squad was without Joel Embiid, Kelly Oubre, Robert Covington and Kenny Lofton, giving the Kings a great opportunity to steal a win against one of the elite teams in the Eastern Conference.
Spoiler: the Kings did not steal the win. In fact, it was pretty unwatchable from start to finish. If you want to skip right to the comment section to air your grievances, feel free. If you must read about it, enjoy. Here we go:
Despite their 23-14 record this season, the Kings have struggled with sluggish starts seemingly all year long, and we saw the same unfortunate trend rear its ugly head in Philly tonight. I know you’ve read this before, but when the Kings aren’t shooting well from beyond the arc, their offense goes in the tank. There is no backup plan, there is no Plan B, just keep shooting. 2-12 from three in the first quarter is really all you need to know.
Philly didn’t shoot particularly well in the first quarter either, but they lead the league in free throw attempts for a reason. They attacked the paint and lived at the line for a 29-21 lead heading into the 2nd quarter.
The 76ers are a good, physical defensive team. They generate more steals than anyone else in the NBA, and the Kings played right into their strength with sloppy passing and unforced turnovers leading to easy buckets. The Kings don’t have the luxury of a good defense to keep them afloat when their offense isn’t playing well, and this game started to snowball in all the wrong ways very quickly. The first half featured Paul Reed outplaying Domantas Sabonis, Tobias Harris dropping 27 points, Tyrese Maxey filling up the stat sheet with 17 points of his own, and 50% 3-point shooting on the 76ers side.
The Embiid-less 76ers took a dominant 65-46 lead into the half, and the disappointment didn’t stop there.
The Kings quickly learned that the Philadelphia 76ers are not the Detroit Pistons. We’ve seen this team erase large deficits and come back to win games after poor starts, but this game never got close. From the 2nd quarter on Philly held a steady 14-20 point lead. There was no fight. There was no comeback. There was no answer.
Chris Duarte started due to Kevin Huerter’s ankle injury, but only played 10 minutes. He was a -9 with 1 point.
Harrison Barnes started, but only played 21 minutes. He scored 4 points on 1-5 shooting.
Sabonis was a -20 in 33 minutes with 4 turnovers, 3 fouls, and 14 points. He had garbage time to thank for a stat line that could have looked much worse.
De’Aaron Fox didn’t have it going, either. He finished with 21 points but did most of his damage at the free throw line, shooting just 5-15 from the field and was a -25 on the court tonight.
Keegan Murray is the only player worth praising to any degree, and his game fell apart towards the end, too. But I thought his defense was pretty good. He was aggressive. He moved well without the ball. He was the only efficient starter until garbage time juiced Sabonis’ numbers.
The bench… I rather not waste time on. Bad grades all the way around.
The Kings got absolutely cooked by the 76ers to the tune of 112-93. Next up: Bucks in Milwaukee on Sunday. If their effort is anything like tonight, that could get ugly.
