Tyrese Maxey, Sixers ‘Night Shift’ crew lead Sixers past Kings for fourth win in a row

Tyrese Maxey continued his run of pristine form lately as the Sixers came back from a double-digit third-quarter deficit to beat the Sacramento Kings for their fourth win in a row.

Here's what I saw.

Likes

- Maxey knocking down a fadeaway midrange jumper at the buzzer to put Philadelphia up by four at halftime was quite the punctuation mark on an excellent first half for the Sixers' star guard. I don't know when voting for All-Star reserves ends, but, if he still has time, he's made quite a final appeal over the last couple games.

The brilliance he showcased against the Kings was a kind of special that was different from what he did to the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday. Sacramento was on a mission to prevent him from seeing the light of day, blitzing every ball screen set for Maxey. They backed him up toward the logo, extended the ball pressure and dared him to make the right passes. 

Maxey did not register a turnover in the first half. That might be a touch misleading, but it exemplifies the overall point - his reads were excellent. If he didn't dime up the immediate scorer, he found the release valve teammate to get the ball moving toward the eventual scorer.

- To the credit of his teammates, they held up their end of the bargain. The Sixers consistently won four-on-three advantages to punish Sacramento's decision to blitz Maxey endlessly. Leading that effort was Eric Gordon, who scored 14 points ahead of halftime.

- I am not remotely an advocate for lineups featuring all of Reggie Jackson, Kyle Lowry and Gordon. The only reason Nick Nurse isn't getting the riot act here is that that group actually won minutes. The Kings relieved Domantas Sabonis over the same time interval, believing they could manage the minutes against that group without him. Philadelphia made them pay, shaving a sluggish start down to a two-point deficit by the end of the first quarter.

- A double dose of credit for the Night Shift gang in this one. The Kings tried to survive the non-Sabonis minutes late in the third quarter by sliding Trey Lyles to center and supporting him with the other four starters. The adjustment did not work. Philadelphia, with its lineup of AARP members, won the minutes again. They turned a 12-point deficit into a lead by the end of the third quarter.

Jackson and Lowry each did things that added up to more than the sum of their parts, like closing out low to prevent attacks against the closeout or tipping rebounds to teammates to complete defensive stops. But, perhaps the biggest boost came from Ricky Council IV. The Kings quite literally had to run him off the court to slow him down in transition. He certainly isn't the smoothest player, but Council makes up for the creative juice that Jackson and Lowry don't have by refusing to back down against ball pressure on drives. No matter who stood in his way, Council fought his way to the rim, picking up free throws along the way.

Dislikes

- Guerschon Yabusele missed his threes very short in this game. It could be as simple as tired legs on the second night of a back-to-back. But, he also seemed a bit hobbled by a play in the second quarter of Tuesday's win over the Lakers. On top of that, he's been dealing with a banged up knee lately. Something to monitor. 

Spare thoughts

- Say what you will and refuse to get your hopes up as you may, but this group winning four games in a row - all of which were legs of back-to-backs - is more than a faint pulse. It was more than fair to doubt whether they had this in them just a week ago. But, this team does not appear ready to give up.

The Sixers (19-27) will host the Denver Nuggets (28-18) on Friday. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., Eastern time. You can catch the action on ESPN.

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