Two teams that liked what they saw at the end of 2024 hope a new year is nothing more than the changing of a calendar when the Philadelphia 76ers visit the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night.
The game matches two coaches with strong links to the Toronto Raptors — the 76ers’ Nick Nurse, who worked 10 years in the organization, five as its head coach; and Kings interim coach Doug Christie, a member of Toronto’s 2000 playoff team amid his four-plus seasons north of the border.
In his second year at the helm of the 76ers, Nurse has his club playing at a season-best level. They’ve won 10 of 13 since a 3-14 start, including having won four in a row overall, three straight on the road and two in succession to start a four-game Western swing.
Tyrese Maxey (30.0 points per game) and Joel Embiid (26.3) have been the headliners of the four-game winning streak, and Paul George has been a steady contributor in 31.3 minutes per game. However, Embiid (sprained left foot) will miss Wednesday’s game.
According to George, the biggest positive in the team’s recent run has been the play of Caleb Martin, whose return to health has coincided with the club’s upswing in outcomes.
“I had a sigh of relief for him,” George said after Martin buried a career-best seven 3-pointers in a Christmas Day win over the Boston Celtics. “Just to watch him battle and work and just put countless hours on getting his body together. He’s a warrior. It was eating away at him that he couldn’t be himself and he couldn’t be available for us. Again, he’s a warrior, so he’s ready when he’s called upon.”
Martin has averaged 11.8 points during the winning streak, making 56.7 percent of his shots overall and 12 of 18 from beyond the arc. He’s also totaled 15 rebounds, four steals and four blocks in the four games.
Martin posted a team-best plus-27 plus/minus in 38 minutes in the 76ers’ 125-103 win at Portland on Monday.
The result prompted far less of a celebration than the one in Sacramento, where the Kings snapped a six-game losing streak and delivered Christie a win in his first home game as interim coach with a 110-100 triumph over the Dallas Mavericks.
Christie moved over a seat on the bench when the Kings fired Mike Brown after their fifth straight defeat, 114-113 at home last Thursday against the Detroit Pistons. Christie then took over for a 132-122 defeat at the hands of the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday in the Kings’ only road game of the losing streak.
The game plan against the Mavericks was tweaked only a bit from the ones Brown had used. Hearing it from a different voice and with a different emotion made the difference, Domantas Sabonis insisted.
“We’ve spent three summers now with him,” Sabonis said of Christie. “He works his butt off, and just to see him installing what he believes in the guys, and the guys reacting that quickly to it, is awesome.”
Among Brown’s accomplishments with the Kings was ending a 10-game losing streak in the all-time series with the 76ers last March. Sacramento hadn’t beaten the Eastern club since February 2019.
Sabonis had a triple-double (11 points, 13 rebounds, 10 assists) and Embiid sat out the 108-96 Kings win in the 76ers’ last visit to the California capital.
The Kings listed starting forward Keegan Murray (11.6 points, 7.4 rebounds per game) as doubtful for Wednesday with left ankle soreness.
–Field Level Media
