Tyrese Maxey, Sixers react to their thrilling comeback win over Kings

The Philadelphia 76ers had nothing going right on Saturday night in their road matchup with the Sacramento Kings. On the final game of a five-game West Coast swing, the Sixers were missing both Joel Embiid and James Harden due to injury management.

The Kings, who entered the night winners of six in a row, led by 21 in the first half as they capitalized on 11 Sixers turnovers which led to 21 Sacramento points. The Kings shot 60.5% from the floor in the first half and 9-for-19 from deep.

Philadelphia was able to cut the lead to 10 at halftime and then completely flipped the script in the second half as they shot 60.9% in the third quarter and outscored Sacramento 38-22 in the third to take a 102-96 lead into the fourth on their way to a 129-127 win. Tyrese Maxey had 32 points and six assists with 21 coming after halftime.

“When we cut it to 10 I said, right before halftime, we had a timeout, I think we were down like 18, I said we cut to 10 by the break, we win the game,” Maxey told NBC Sports Philadelphia after the game. “That’s what ends up happening.”

The Sixers also received contributions from others. Montrezl Harrell had 17 points and seven rebounds, Georges Niang and Tobias Harris had 17 points each, and Shake Milton had 15. Danuel House Jr., who hasn’t played much in weeks, even knocked down two triples and played terrific defense.

“Resilient win by our guys,” coach Doc Rivers told reporters. “Tyrese was phenomenal, but so was everyone. D-House hasn’t played in I don’t know how long. He comes in and makes two 3s for us. Just everybody who played did something to help us win the game.”

Paul Reed also came off the bench and had nine points and seven rebounds, four of them on the offensive end. It was a terrific effort from everybody combined with Philadelphia finally playing defense.

“Mainly, just we got some stops finally, and then once you start getting those stops, you can get out and run you can play freely,” Maxey added. “Once you can play freely, you got a lot of different guys that can do a lot of things. Everybody was making shots. Shake and Georges off the bench played well. Even P-Reed came in and gave us big minutes. Even Tobias started off hot and then he decided he was gonna foul out (he was joking).”

Maxey and the Sixers are oozing confidence right now. This was an impressive win against a very good Kings team and Philadelphia remained calm and composed despite the odds stacked against them.

“We were down 21 points and all we talked about was winning the game,” Rivers finished. “We didn’t panic. Just every timeout, we’re going to win the game. Just hang in there. Came out the beginning of the third and grabbed the lead.”

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Story originally appeared on Sixers Wire