Sixers Ride Maxey, Embiid to Last-Second Victory Over Lowly Kings

The Sixers rode Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid to a comeback victory at home thanks to a layup from Philadelphia's star guard with one second remaining in the game.

Here's what happened.

Maxey gets back on track

This was the perfect matchup for Maxey to rediscover his rhythm as a shooter. The Kings are small at the guard spot and their bigger perimeter guys aren't all that interested in locking in on that end of the floor. Even if Sacramento switched, a slow-footed big in Domantas Sabonis or Precious Achiuwa stood between him and the basket. There may not be a defense worse designed to stop him, and he was huting from the jump-ball.

Maxey scored eight of Philadephia's first 10 points in the game, lacing a turnaround mid-range jumper before registering a pair of step-back threes. And then he went quiet for a little while as the game rocked back and forth.

He rediscovered the hot hand early in the second quarter, Nick Nurse staggering him and Embiid so that one of the two would be on the floor at all times. It was Embiid's time to rest, so Maxey got to eat. He cleaned the plate.

This didn't start out as Maxey's best floor game. He called his own number for long stretches of the second quarter, but Maxey did get basically whatever he wanted going to the rim or earned a trip to the line in the process.

It wasn't until Embiid returned to the floor that Maxey's floor game really opened up. The Kings started trapping him out of pick-and-rolls, pushing him toward the sideline on the right side of the floor. Maxey responded by stringing out the trap, ensuring that Embiid had ample space to catch passes over the top and play four-on-three with the rest of the court. That was when the Sixers started creating some separation, Maxey making the right passing reads for open threes on the second side of the court over and over again.

The two-man game brings the Sixers back

Of course, these are the Sixers. They can only do one blowout per month, and they used that one on the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday.

The Sixers found themselves trailing by 11 in the fourth quarter, an unacceptable place to be against the lowly Kings. But that was practically irrelevant with Maxey and Embiid back in the game. Just as they used the two-man game to great success in the first half, they got back to their patented pick-and-roll in the fourth quarter and immediately tightened the game.

When the Sixers made their push to recover this game from a horrendous loss, Philadelphia rode the Maxey-Embiid relationship to productive possessions. That was part of what made this game so frustrating to watch. They had a very clear formula to sustained success and could've put Sacramento away by halftime if they wanted to. But they weren't focused enough to stack coherent possessions on either end of the floor.

When it came to winning time, they buckled down and executed the surest thing. The duo scored Philadelphia's final 21 points of the game, erasing an 11-point deficit to pull out a two-point win.

It might as well have been the first time the Kings ever saw Embiid play basketball. He used the same footwork and pump fake to get from the elbow and block to the rim on three straight possessions down the stretch.

Efense

The Sixers took the 'D' out of 'defense' for the first 43 minutes of this game. The lack of focus was wide-spread and apparent from the jump. Let's start with Adem Bona, who has made it a nightly bit to pick up fouls some 25 feet from the basket. The Sixers reached on drives, giving talented scorers like DeMar DeRozan the contact they needed to sell shooting fouls.

This is the danger of failing to balance keeping your supporting cast involved with executing what is working. The byproduct of Embiid and Maxey doing the heavy-lifting on offense all night is that mouths like Kelly Oubre Jr. and VJ Edgecombe don't get fed.

Why is that important?

You need to keep your most important defensive players engaged in the game so that they're sharp on that end of the floor. If they feel uninvolved on offense, they're not just going to flip a switch and be locked in on defense. The other side of the conversation is that if you don't involve the supporting cast, they are eventually going to call their own numbers to helter skelter results.

When the Sixers did finally buckle down and get some stops, they turned DeRozan and Zach LaVine — two capable isolation scorers — into passers. They hugged up on the ball and dared them to actually make plays, inducing turnovers instead.

Spare thoughts

The Kings rebounded 45 percent of their own misses in this game, outscoring the Sixers, 24-0, on second-chance points. The Sixers lost the rebounding battle by 28. If the Sixers showed up before the last seven minutes of the game, they would've had a relaxing fourth quarter.

This was a nightmare game for Dominick Barlow. Sacramento cooked him in space, they cooked him at the rim. The Kings had him biting fakes and fouling all over the place. He fought the good fight, but not a banner night for the reserve forward.

The Jared McCain heater was short-lived. Four points in 15 minutes. But he did make a very difficult layup, so Quentin Grimes better watch his back.

DeRozan set a pick for LaVine on the right wing and both defenders went to DeRozan, leaving a good three-point shooter wide open. It was at that moment that I rolled my eyes.

To turn in this type of effort in the same week that you got embarrassed by the Charlotte Hornets is unforgivable. Build good habits. Play a full 48 minutes of basketball. Stop playing down to the competition. How can the Sixers go into New York and win twice but be locked in battle after battle against lesser teams at home? It's simple. They're consistently inconsistent.