The Sixers had a shot (if they could get a shot off) to win their third game out of the last four on Tuesday night in Sacramento. Hollis Thompson received the ball from Nerlens Noel, after Noel had caught the in bounds pass with eight seconds to play, trailing eight. Thompson made his move towards the basket, but his pursuit was interrupted when DeMarcus Cousins slapped the ball away and Thompson fell to the ground. With that, the Kings had the 107-106 victory.
Cousins had the big play defensively, knocking the ball towards teammate Ray McCallum, but had a monster game on the offensive end to help lead the Kings. Cousins had 33 points and 10 offensive rebounds—17 boards total.
The final play by Cousins sealed an incredible final six minutes defensively for the Kings. They held Philadelphia to zero field goals in the final 6:12. That was a drastic difference from the 70 points they allowed in the first half of the game. After the embarrassing first half of defense, Head Coach George Karl challenged his team for a much better effort. In addition to the big finish, they also limited the Sixers to another stretch of nearly six more scoreless minutes.
The only bright spot for the Sixers was a brief stretch of hot shooting from Robert Covington. In a span of 1:15 in the middle of the fourth, Covington was able to score 12 points on all four shots he made. Those would be the last field goals the Sixers made all night.
Thomas Robinson scored a career-high 16 points in the game. He was originally selected by the Kings with the fifth overall points.
The Sixers get back to action tonight in Denver.
