After Tuesday night’s loss to the Sacramento Kings, the Philadelphia 76ers have now dropped seven of their last eight games.
The Philadelphia 76ers lost their second consecutive game in back to back nights, after falling to the Sacramento Kings 101-95 on Tuesday night at home in the Wells Fargo Center.
Philly led by as many as 16 points in the nine minute mark during the third quarter, but in the fourth quarter the Kings took the lead after going on a 13-0 run to open the final period.
The Kings’ Zach Randolph led all scorers with 27 points, shooting an efficient 12-of-19 (63.2 percent) from the floor.
Although Robert Covington led the Sixers in scoring with 17, he shot a dismal 5-of-19 from the field and made just two of his 13 three-point field goal attempts. The Sixers as a team shot just 10-of-35 from three, which isn’t going to win you many games in the NBA. The Philadelphia defense also allowed 48 points in the paint, so that didn’t help the Sixers cause either.
The Sixers are 1-7 over their last eight games
The Sixers haven’t looked good over their last eight games, coming away with only one victory which was an overtime win against the Timberwolves last Monday. The most disturbing losses for Philly fans have to be these last two against the (10-20) Kings and the (9-20) Chicago Bulls, who are among the worse teams in the NBA.
Philly also has a record of just 1-6 in games without starting center Joel Embiid, which doesn’t make things any better for the team, considering he has a minute restriction and is nursing a back injury. In addition to Embiid absence, the Sixers had to finish Tuesday night’s game without the services of JJ Redick, who suffered a right hamstring injury in the third quarter.
If Redick is to miss any games moving forward that would be a huge loss, because he is third on the team in scoring (16.5 ppg) and second in three-point percentage (38.7 percent).
The Sixers as a whole even with Redick are a poor outside shooting team, ranking just 21st in three-point percentage (35.3 percent).
Philly will need to find someone to step up as a consistent scoring threat without Embiid/ Redick. Rookie Ben Simmons is second on the team in scoring (17.2 ppg) but is very inconsistent. Shooting the ball just six times in a game your team should have been able to win isn’t going to get it done in the NBA.
The Sixers will host the (20-8) Toronto Raptors on Thursday night in Wells Fargo, so if Philly doesn’t have both Redick and Embiid things could get ugly.
Next: Redick's inconsistency is worse than Covington's
Previous Recaps:
L, Chicago 117-Philadelphia 115
L, Oklahoma City 119 – Philadelphia 117
W, Philadelphia 118- Minnesota 112