Kings’ Home Win Streak Ends at the Hands of the 76ers
Mar 5, 2020, 10:33 PM | Updated: 10:33 pm
Photo by Kimani Okearah
The Sacramento Kings have been on a roll as of late, and expected their success to continue through Thursday night’s meeting with the Philadelphia 76ers. Without stars Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid, the Sixers shot their way to a 125-108 win with 17 made three-pointers.
With the exception of a first quarter and fourth quarter run, the Kings were chasing Philadelphia all night, never leading at any point in the game.
“They came out and set the tone early. They were bigger, stronger – at least it felt like that tonight,” said Kings head coach Luke Walton. “They wanted it more it felt like. They made 17 threes, 45% from threes, kicked our butts with second-chance points…it’s one of those things…”
The 76ers had won just nine games on the road before Thursday night’s victory, and entered the game on a nine game road losing streak.
“They came out in attack mode. You want to guard without fouling but at the end of the day we gotta be able to stay in front of our guy and contest shots. If they make tough shots you live with it,” said De’Aaron Fox.
Tobias Harris led Philadelphia with 28 points and set the tone early with his aggressiveness and physicality. On top of his execution, role players Alec Burks and Raul Neto combined for 33 points off the bench.
“When we did make our run, Neto and Burks made some big shots for them. They stepped up and made plays when they needed to. Give them credit. We needed that one but we have two big games coming up this weekend so we gotta get back to work tomorrow and get ready for the road,” said Walton.
Kings guard Bogdan Bogdanovic shared one of the biggest lessons he has learned in his first few NBA seasons, “This is the league, you can’t relax. That’s what I’ve learned – there is no space to relax. All the teams and all the players are here for a reason. Everyone is ready to step up and have a big night”.
“It’s never just this smooth, easy ride up,” said Walton, “I’ve talked about it all year, when we were winning earlier I said we were going to struggle again at some point this season – it’s going to happen. Every night there’s what you call a setback for somebody.”
Sacramento is hoping to bounce back on Saturday night in an important game in Portland against the Trail Blazers. The Kings are now four games back of the Memphis Grizzlies in the 8th seed.
“Obviously teams are fighting for position and fighting to get in. So everyone is playing with a sense of urgency and you kinda feel it tighten up a little bit,” said Fox.
