By: Kylan Watson
The Philadelphia 76ers who are currently riding a three-game losing streak faced off with the Sacramento Kings for a Friday night primetime matchup between two of the best up and coming teams in their respective conferences. Each team traded blows throughout this game but a scoring explosion by Tobias Harris put this game away for Philly 112-93.
Philly jumped on the Kings from the opening tip-off they were able to make their shots early on in this game. Tobias Harris had his fingerprints all over this game he scored 37-points and hit three/four three-pointer shots from beyond the arc. An aggressive Harris is a great thing for Philly, he created a lot of shots off of his aggressiveness. The Kings had to give him a lot of defensive attention which opened up the rest of the team with high-percentage shot opportunities. Before the Kings knew it this game was out of reach and there was really nothing they could do about it. Nick Nurse put a lot of emphasis over the past few days over their aggressiveness and staying attached to their man and the Sixers responded tonight. Winning their third game of the season without Joel Embiid.
To their credit, Sacramento continued to fight throughout this game they were able to make this a competitive game early in the contest. De’Aaron Fox scored 21-points and only made five/15 shots. The Sixers made it a point to shut him down throughout this game. They forced someone else on his team to beat them and no one else was able to answer the challenge and that was the difference in this game. The Sixers finally got somebody else to show up in this game not named Maxey and Harris and that allowed them to win this game.
The Sixers will now prepare to face the Houston Rockets on Monday Afternoon. This is another team with an explosive backcourt that they will need to stay attached to. Jalen Green will offer up a unique challenge as he can shoot the ball and attack the basket. Limiting him will be important to shutting down the Rockets offensive attack. Additionally, they will need to keep the ball moving on the offensive side to create high-percentage shot opportunities. If they can implement these things they should be able to get their 25th victory of the season.