A tough test vs. Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers awaits the Sixers after outlasting the Sacramento Kings

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Pardon the cliché, but the 76ers know they must take it one game at a time on this road trip.

That was obvious during Tuesday’s 119-111 victory over the Sacramento Kings at the Golden 1 Center. Now the Sixers will face the Portland Trail Blazers Thursday night in the Moda Center in the second contest of their four-game road trip on the West Coast.

The Sixers (18-7) are definitely motivated.

The Blazers won in a 121-105 rout last Thursday at the Wells Fargo Center despite having six players sidelined. Portland (13-10) played without All-Star point guard Damian Lillard, shooting guard CJ McCollum, center Jusuf Nurkic, Chester’s Derrick Jones Jr., Nassir Little, and Zach Collins. Lillard and Jones returned in the next game.

Lillard is the league’s fourth-leading scorer (29.4 points per game). The nine-year veteran scored 51 points in his last contest against the Sixers during the NBA restart in August. He has scored 30 or more points in four of his last seven games against Philly.

Ben Simmons, who missed last Thursday’s game against the Blazers, was asked what he’s looking forward to in the rematch.

“I’m looking forward to winning,” he said. “That’s my goal. We want to win every game on this road trip. Now, we have to take it day by day. We can’t look ahead too far.

“We’ve got to play every quarter, every minute until we get all those wins. And that’s our goal, to win games on this road trip.”

Tuesday’s result could serve as a confidence boost for the Sixers. They battled back and won a game they would have surely lost a season ago, as has been the case with several wins this season.

Sacramento point guard De’Aaron Fox looked like the roadrunner in the first half, using his speed all over the court, and creating perimeter scoring opportunities for the Kings. Fox finished with game highs of 34 points (on 30 shots) and 10 assists for Sacramento (12-12). Twenty-three of his points came in the first half.

However, the Sixers didn’t panic or quit. They improved their defense after intermission, limiting the Kings to 3-for-22 shooting on threes in the second half, and kept Fox out of the paint.

Simmons defended Fox before Matisse Thybulle took over in the fourth quarter. Fox responded by making just 3-of-13 shots and scoring seven points as the Sixers outscored the Kings, 32-20, in the final quarter.

While Thybulle picked up the defensive slack, Tobias Harris and Joel Embiid provided the Sixers’ fourth-quarter offensive spark. Harris scored 12 of his 22 points in the quarter on 4-for-5 shooting, which included making both of his three-point attempts. He started the night 0-for-3 on three-pointers. Embiid finished with 25 points, 17 rebounds, and 6 assists as the Sixers posted their sixth win in seven games. Ten of Embiid’s points came in the fourth quarter.

Players will tell you there’s a refusal to lose that was missing a season ago.

“I think just the mentality we have and the guys we have this year, we know we can win games,” Simmons said. “We have that positivity in winning games even if we are down 10 points going into the half or whatever that might be.”

Simmons said every game is important to the Sixers, who have a 1 1/2-game lead over the second-place Milwaukee Bucks atop the Eastern Conference standings entering Wednesday’s slate of games.

“So we have to have that mentality throughout the whole season to the playoffs,” he said.

Sixers guard Shake Milton is listed as doubtful for Thursday‘s game with a left ankle sprain.