PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers walked away with a 113-111 win over the Sacramento Kings on Thursday night despite trailing by 11 in the fourth quarter. The Sixers were outscored 38-28 in the third as the Kings began to turn the game led by Domantas Sabonis and DeMar DeRozan.

When looking at the stats, one would have thought the Kings had won this game. Sacramento won the rebounding battle 46-24 and had 24 second-chance points compared to zero for Philadelphia. The Sixers received incredible games from Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey as the two combined for 97 points, but Paul George was the only other Sixer in double-figures with 15 points.

Advertisement

The Kings had everything going their way, but the Sixers locked in defensively over the final 7:29 of the game and were able to pull out the win. With that being said, one has to wonder how they’re feeling after that one.

“Well, I think that kind of what you fear a little bit going into this game happens,” said coach Nick Nurse. “I think we’re pretty lucky, to be honest with you, that we got out of there with a W. Not very good on the glass, not very good transition, not very good on defense, and they just start building confidence, right?”

The Kings entered the contest with the second-worst record in the Western Conference ahead of only the New Orleans Pelicans–Philadelphia’s next opponent on Saturday– and on a 6-game losing streak, but they have some real talent.

“They got some guys that can really play, and almost all of them got feeling pretty good, and we’re lucky,” Nurse said. “We were able to at least play some tough defense the last, what, six minutes, seven minutes, and rebound the ball a little bit. So we’re pretty fortunate to get out of there with the win tonight.”

Advertisement

With that being said, the Kings have some players on their roster who have been All-Stars in this league. Guys like Sabonis, DeRozan, and Zach LaVine have been selected to the All-Star game in the past and they deserve respect despite the poor record. Were the Sixers lucky? Maybe, but it shows their resilience as well.

“I wouldn’t say we got lucky,” Embiid said succinctly. “Obviously, I think the Kings are better than whatever their record says. They got a lot of talent. You look at DeMar, Zach, Sabonis, those are great players, and they have a bunch of others. They haven’t been healthy all season. So, I think they’re better than whatever their record says, but I don’t think it was like luck, obviously, this is the NBA. Every team—they’re NBA players. Every night is different. So, I’m happy we executed down the stretch. Being down 11, that’s not luck to come back and win the game.”

Another factor to consider is the ups and downs of an 82-game season. Games like Thursday’s will happen.

“I feel like sometimes you got to be lucky,” added Maxey. “It happens. It’s 82 games in a season. We didn’t play great by no stretch of imagination, but we’re gonna take the W. I mean, I’d definitely rather win the game and learn lessons after than lose it, but it happens. We’ll practice tomorrow, and we’ll be back, trying to be better next game.”

Advertisement

The Sixers have let these games slip away in some instances. They got it done on Thursday and walked away with the win. That’s all that matters.

“This was one of those just close games,” George added. “Obviously, you don’t want to go into games like that, but it was great that we were a team that was able to turn the switch on when we needed to. We got to be better. Obviously, we can’t hang our hat on that, especially with talent we have, but a win’s a win.”

This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: Sixers discuss luck and resilience in last-second win over Kings