Jan. 29, 2026, 11:23 p.m. ET

PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers were able to escape by the skin of their teeth on Thursday 113-111 over the Sacramento Kings at home. Tyrese Maxey delivered the knockout punch when he finished a tough layup with 1.3 seconds left to break the tie. He was fouled on the shot, but he missed the free-throw before Zach LaVine missed the prayer at the buzzer.

The Sixers got the ball into Joel Embiid on the final play in the middle of the floor. Maxey got a head full of steam and went straight downhill and to the basket and finished despite the foul by Kings big man Precious Achiuwa.

“I think (Dennis) Schroder was denying me in the back court, we passed it to Jo,” Maxey recalled. “We had enough time, like four seconds, five seconds for me to run, kind of get off of him, and catch the ball and get down here and get an attempt on the rim and I think we like our chances with that.”

Maxey was then at the foul line after the play and was asking both Embiid and Paul George what he should do. With only 1.3 seconds left, and the Kings out of timeouts, it would make sense to miss it. Embiid told him not to, but George said to do it. Maxey was torn, but he went with George’s advice.

“I asked him, I said, ‘Should I miss it?’ He said, No,” Maxey smiled. “Paul said, yes. So I was kind of in between. Then I was like, You know what? I’m just gonna miss it and it worked out. He said, ‘Don’t ever do that again.’”

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The play the Sixers called in that instance was a familiar one. Coach Nick Nurse has made sure that his star guard gets the opportunity in the past, and this time, it paid off.

“It’s kind of set up for a couple things,” Nurse explained. “If they’re going to go up and take Tyrese out, then he’s got an opportunity to change directions on them, right? I think Jo did a great job, first of all, getting open and delivering that pass, and if they don’t take them out, it’s almost the same thing, except for Joel is going to set a really high screen up the floor, and it just gives—I mean, Tyrese really wanted the ball there late. We tried to run one before that. It’s a little bit different counter to that play. They, obviously, knocked the ball away so it was quick, flipped into another play. So, it was very good again.”

The Sixers will play host to the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday.