The Sports Xchange
Dec 19, 2017
PHILADELPHIA -- Veteran forward Zach Randolph, taking advantage of the absence of Joel Embiid, scored 27 points as the Sacramento Kings rallied for a 101-95 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday night.
Buddy Hield added 10 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter for the Kings, who erased a 16-point third-quarter deficit to end a two-game losing streak.
Frank Mason Jr. chipped in 16 points for Sacramento (10-20).
Robert Covington scored 17 points to lead the Sixers, who lost their third straight and their seventh in eight games to fall to 14-16. It is the first time they have been two games under .500 since they were 0-2.
Jerryd Bayless added 15 points for Philadelphia, and Ben Simmons had 13 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists.
Embiid, the team's leading scorer and rebounder, missed his second straight game with lower back soreness. The Sixers are 1-6 without Embiid this season.
The Kings, down 65-49 with 9:07 left in the third quarter, outscored Philadelphia 35-13 over the next 13:26 to go up 84-78 with 7:41 remaining in the game. That included a 13-0 flurry to begin the final period, in which Hield scored six points and Willie Cauley-Stein had four.
Philadelphia crept within two, 88-86, on a 3-pointer by Bayless with 5:12 to play, but baskets by Hield and Garrett Temple gave the Kings breathing room.
Sacramento, powered by Randolph's 13 first-quarter points, moved to a 32-27 lead early in the second quarter.
The Kings were up 46-44 after a 3-pointer by Mason with 5:25 left in the half, but the Sixers scored 13 of the last 15 points before the break to take a 57-48 halftime lead.
The Kings missed eight of nine shots from the floor in that stretch, while J.J. Redick led the Sixers' rush with a pair of 3-pointers, one of them after Simmons pitched ahead to Covington, who while making a leaping grab with his back to the basket fired to Redick on the right wing.
Randolph finished the half with 15 points, and Hield had 12. Simmons and T.J. McConnell topped the Sixers with nine each, and Simmons contributed six rebounds and six assists as well.
Redick, who scored eight points in the first half, missed the rest of the game because of a tight right hamstring.
The Sixers extended their lead to 65-49 early in the third quarter before the Kings mounted a charge, again behind Randolph. He packed 10 points into the last 7:07 of the period, most of them on slow-motion drives to the hoop, slicing Philadelphia's lead to 78-71 entering the fourth quarter.
NOTES: C Jahlil Okafor, traded by the Sixers to the Brooklyn Nets on Dec. 7, told the New York Post that he was happy to be with a team featuring "an actual NBA coaching staff." When asked about that before the game, Philadelphia coach Brett Brown said, "Jahlil knows what we did here. It's a young person who gave a quote. ... I think everybody understands how we treat people here and the attention he received while he was here." ... Philadelphia F Trevor Booker returned after missing Monday's loss in Chicago with a sprained left ankle. ... The Kings were without G George Hill (illness), and G De'Aaron Fox left the game at halftime after aggravating the quadriceps injury that caused him to miss Sunday's loss in Toronto. Fox, who scored two points in 11 minutes, did not return.