Sixers look for revenge, a chance to build momentum in home tilt with Kings

The Sixers have themselves a chance at retribution on Tuesday night against the Sacramento Kings, this time, it's being played at the Wells Fargo Center.

 

The Sixers had a chance to beat a much-worse Kings team on the road, but mistake after mistake allowed rookie De'Aaron Fox to sink a go-ahead bucket in the closing seconds to snatch a victory against Philadelphia.

 

Since November 10, the Sixers have found themselves in the biggest struggle of the season so far, not being able to find their niche on the court.

 

The Sixers have now lost two games in a row since their 118-112 win over the Timberwolves last Tuesday night. They couldn't find a way to get past the Thunder, losing in three overtimes at home, and then falling badly to Chicago on Monday night, 117-115.

 

Joel Embiid missed Monday vs. the Bulls as part of the front half of the back-to-back, and he will also miss Tuesday's battle with the Kings, due to back tightness.

 

Embiid has been like a King for the Sixers this season, averaging almost 24 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, and two blocks a game this season.

 

With Embiid and Ben Simmons out on the court together, they have forged a dynamic duo that rest of their teammates have rallied around.

 

But we have come to realize that the Sixers need more than their two star players out on the court at the same time. They really just need shooters they can rely on to take quality looks and turn them into quality shots. From the outside more than just the inside.

 

The Sixers have paid guys like JJ Redick and Robert Covington to be the outside threat they lacked last season, but they haven't exactly lived up to their billing.

 

Redick is shooting 38.1-percent from three in his last five games, taking an average of 8.4 shot attempts in those games and sinking just three per game on average.

 

Redick is also averaging almost 38 minutes per game in his previous five games, which is exorbitantly up from his career average of 25.2 in 13 seasons.

 

The increased number of minutes Redick has played this season so far is mostly due to the injury to Markelle Fultz, as he was supposed to be sharing the workload shooting the ball.

 

Fultz seems to be on track to make a return hopefully some time this season from his shoulder injury, but it's apparent that the Sixers really could use a player like Fultz to shoot the ball in ways that other players can't.

 

The Sixers hoped that by adding Redick in the offseason that their overall three-point field goal percentage would improve, but they are still shooting only a cool 35.6-percent from beyond thus far, good for 20th in the NBA.

 

Overall shooting wise, the Sixers are still an effective squad, shooting a collective 45.8-percent from the field, 12th best in the league.

 

But ultimately, the Sixers need that deep threat that will assist them on pulling away from teams and putting them over the top.

 

The Kings are currently holding a record of 9-20, and have been a streaking team in terms of winning basketball games. They have lost five of their last seven games, but are more than capable of beating teams that they aren't supposed to beat.

 

They aren't a team with a lockdown scorer, but they tend to spread the ball around, with Zach Randolph leading the team with 15.2 points per game.

 

As a team, they are averaging a really low 96 points per game, and allowing 105.6 points per game as well.

 

The Sixers are going to have their work cut out for them against the Kings, even if they look like the better team on paper.

 

The surprise game-time decision of no Embiid is likely affect the team in a negative way, but they will look for other outlets to give the team momentum to be impactful going forward.