‘We were extremely resilient’: Sixers rally, then hold off Sacramento Kings without Joel Embiid and James Harden

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A collection of 76ers raised their arms over their head from the visitors’ bench in a combination of relief and joy, as Paul Reed fell to the ground with the ball in his grasp as the final seconds ticked off.

A wild finale to the Sixers’ Western Conference road trip had brought the Kings’ Harrison Barnes to the free-throw line with a chance to tie the score, after an inexplicable foul by Matisse Thybulle outside the arc with 2.9 seconds to play. Barnes missed the first attempt. He made the second. And after misfiring on the third on purpose, Domantas Sabonis could not follow with the game-tying tip-in and Reed snagged the ball.

That dramatic sequence secured the Sixers’ 129-127 win without Joel Embiid and James Harden Saturday night at the Golden1 Center, completing a 5-0 road trip with one of their more impressive victories of the season.

“We were extremely resilient,” said Tyrese Maxey, who finished with 32 points including two key free throws with 17.8 seconds remaining. “The last few seconds of that game were crazy.”

The Sixers (30-16) began their five-game trek West with four consecutive wins, clinching a successful trip even before Saturday’s result. About 90 minutes before tipoff, coach Doc Rivers downplayed the potential pitfalls of a “getaway game” before their cross-country flight to Philly that would not land until past dawn on Sunday. And his team responded, rallying from a 21-point first-half deficit, taking the lead for good late in the third, and then holding off a final surge from an upstart Kings team that had entered Saturday on its own six-game winning streak.

“We just have a group of guys that’s just really willing to put their egos aside,” said George Niang, who finished with 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting and six rebounds off the bench, “No matter who’s playing, just show up every day and give everything they have and, if we’re close at the end, make winning plays.”

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After Sacramento cut what had been a nine-point fourth-quarter deficit to 120-119 on a Kevin Huerter three-pointer and De’Aaron Fox driving finish with two minutes to go, Niang answered with a long ball, and Maxey made a hook shot to push their lead to 125-121 with less than a minute remaining. Maxey and De’Anthony Melton then went 4-for-4 from the free-throw line, before Barnes’ trip to the stripe.

The Sixers built a 107-96 lead early in the fourth, when Niang three-pointer bounced in and Reed followed his own spinning miss with a putback. The Kings (26-19) sliced that advantage to 109-108 on two Fox free throws with 7:16 to go, before Maxey responded with a finish off the glass and Shake Milton followed with a three-pointer.

Maxey scored 15 of his points in the third quarter that flipped the game in the Sixers’ favor, while Tobias Harris added 17 points, six assists, and five rebounds before fouling out with about three minutes to play. Montrezl Harrell had 17 points and seven rebounds while starting in place of Embiid.

The shorthanded Sixers looked overmatched in the first half, falling behind, 15-4, in the opening minutes and trailing, 73-52, with about two minutes remaining before the break. But they ended the first half on a 14-3 burst, including a deep three-pointer banked in by Danuel House Jr. at the buzzer that Maxey said was the moment “when the energy shifted and we knew we had a chance to win.” Then, a 13-point burst by Maxey in the third quarter’s initial four minutes, a three-pointer by Harris, and a finish though contact by Harrell tied the game, 86-86, at the 6:59 mark.

A tough layup by Maxey gave the Sixers their first lead, 95-94, with about three minutes to play in the period, before Niang followed with his own finish inside. That advantage stretched to 100-94 on a House three-pointer at the 1:34 mark.

The Sixers next play two marquee home games, starting Wednesday against the Brooklyn Nets, who are 1½ games back of the Sixers in the Eastern Conference standings, and next Saturday against the West-leading Denver Nuggets.

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Maxey was excellent in his move back into the starting lineup in place of Harden, while Harrell was particularly impactful in the second half.

That new-look first unit, which also included Melton and P.J. Tucker, naturally put the ball in Maxey’s and Harris’ hands more frequently. Reed (nine points, seven rebounds) got nine first-half minutes, while House (six points in five minutes) — who had not played meaningful minutes since a New Year’s Eve win in Oklahoma City — entered late in the second frame. House also got second-half time.

First-half foul trouble for Tucker briefly pushed Rivers into using a three-guard lineup with Maxey, Melton, and Milton, before Niang re-entered. Niang and Milton were also in the game at crunch time, after Harris fouled out. So was Tucker, who was tasked with guarding Sabonis.

“Everyone pitched in tonight,” Rivers said. “This is why you pay everybody. This is a great example. It was a team win. ... Earlier in the year, we’d lose this. But now, because we’ve played with guys out, next-man mentality, everyone was ready.”

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Without their defensive anchor in Embiid, the Sixers initially struggled to guard a Kings team that entered Saturday with the NBA’s second-most efficient offense (117.4 points per 100 possessions).

Sacramento shot 60 percent in the first half, including making eight of its first 15 three-point shots. That shifted in the third quarter, when the Sixers held the Kings to 22 points on 9-of-21 from the floor. And though the Kings shot 55.4% in the final frame, the Sixers had used their own offensive outbursts to create enough of a cushion to hold on to win.

An area that helped the Sixers make that defensive improvement? After committing 11 turnovers that the fast-paced Kings parlayed into 21 points in the first half, the Sixers had only four for four points following the break.

“That’s just giving them a Christmas gift,” Niang said of the first-half turnovers. “So when we were able to control the ball, get good shots every time down, set our halfcourt defense, and make them play against our halfcourt defense, I think that’s kind of when the game started to swing in our direction.”