Sixers sweeps back-to-back, tie season high with fourth straight against kings

Is this very won even allowed?

Sixers took down the Sacramento Kings 117-104 Wednesday night. It is their fourth win in a row that matches their longest winning stripe of the season. They are 19-27.

Tyrese Maxey again led all scorers, ended with 30 points along with eight assists, his third straight match with at least 30 Kelly Oubre Jr. Ended with 15 points, while Eric Gordon shot it well again to finish with 14. Malik Monk led Kings with 21.

Joel Embiid remained out, and Paul George missed his other straight game due to a finger injury.

Here are some thoughts from the center.

First quarter

• Sixers were early on the back when Kings made five of their first six shots of the game. Four of those coming right at the edge caused an early timeout from Nick Nurse.
• It expected the Kings defense to be filled early at Maxey. He started the game 1-of-3 from the field, but had three assists. They didn’t have much else that was going on offensively, but they were able to turn kings over five times in the first thanks to four steals.
• Maxey closed his shift well as he hit one and-1 in the transition, then followed it up with a midrange pull-up. The older statesmen of Backcourt lightened him well as Eric Gordon and Kyle Lowry hit a few shots. The youths came on the board when Adem Bona found an open Justin Edwards cut of baseline. It still cut Kings’ lead two as the smaller Sixers searched for answers to Domanta’s Sabonis.

Second quarter

• Gordon continues to do almost everything at the moment when he was open again for a floater type shot. He followed it up with another logo three a few belongings later. Sixers also got an Edwards three and a few Ricky Council IV free throw in this stretch.

• Sacramento was able to catch up when Sixers’ violation began to slow down. Demar Derozan found his foothold when he caused a few jumpers to fall. He had seven points in the second. Monk was even harder to contain as he had 16 in the first half. On the other end, Bona went for his most ambitious can attempt yet, but was called for a fee when Trey Lyles was able to slip in his way. Bona had a heavy workload after Guerschon Yabusele fetched his third error with 5:44 back in half. He also had to sit in the last 30 seconds of half after almost picking up his fourth error.
• As simple as it sounds, three-pointers that go in have helped this team so much this week. Gordon knocked down another three, causing two defenders to shut out on him on the next possession. It opened a slight pass to an open bona for a can. Sixers took a four-point lead as they shot over 50% from the field and from three in half.

Third quarter

• Like the start of the game, Kings had no problem driving directly to the basket to begin the second half-they opened the third 6-of-8 from the floor. Like the start of the game, nurse called an early timeout in an attempt to blow up the momentum.
• Drivers were able to find yabusele for a few floats out of that timeout, but Kings continued to kill them at the edge at the other end. To the point that three-point shooting was a help, Sixers made only one in the third. De’Aaron Fox had a quiet first half, but had eight in the third. When he played the ball, he did some injury with his cut. He even slipped behind a sleeping defense to catch a lob from the half -lane.
• After finally having a few stops, Sixers was able to get back starting with a few layups from Reggie Jackson. The council got a few transition options – one of which ended with a reverse thump, the other he pulled a flagant on when Derozan decided to prevent another vice versa. Sixers got the lead again on a Jackson Three and ended the quarter with two.

Fourth quarter

• The council did not look worse for wear after the fall as he had an impressive drive that ended up with a spin movement around Monk early in the quarter. A few belongings later he started contact with Keegan Murray to get himself to the line as Sixers opened the quarter on a 9-2 race.
• Sixers got good energy from the council their last two matches, but they won the Maxey-less minutes tonight because of the veterans. Lowry and Jackson combined for 22 and shot 50% and 60% from the field respectively. However, the kings did not go away, they got into the bonus about halfway through the quarter they used in their advantage. They also continued to have a easier time to get to the edge against Sixers’ smaller lineup.
• Sacramento finally began to fight this group. They were kept scoreless for two minutes and Sixers spent the time expanding their lead to double digits. Maxey hit a few layups to put the game on Ice, the other was a spectacular reverse.

• Home Stand rolls on with another national TV competition, as Sixers hosts the Nuggets Friday night – which is set to tilt at 1 p.m. 7.30 pm one. If Joel Embiid can’t fit it, it will certainly get a similar reaction to when he missed last week’s matchup in Denver.