Doc Rivers Credits Seth Curry for 'Saving' Sixers vs. Kings

Seth Curry came up big for the Sixers in the first half on Tuesday.

The Philadelphia 76ers came out firing on offense early in the Tuesday night matchup against the Sacramento Kings. And they needed to if they wanted to avoid falling in a deep hole early as the Kings' fast-paced offense got the best of Philly's defense early on in the matchup.

Typically, the Sixers would rely on their MVP candidate center Joel Embiid to put up the points to go blow for blow with the opposition, but the team's sharpshooting veteran Seth Curry was up for the task on Tuesday night.

In the first quarter, Curry checked in for just over nine minutes. During his first minutes on the floor, he knocked down three of his four field-goal attempts for eight points. Curry's early contributions helped the Sixers hang 42 points in the first quarter.

While they looked solid in the first 12 minutes, it didn't take long before Sacramento came right back from an early ten-point deficit. As they outscored the Sixers 39-24 in the second quarter, the Kings had almost all of the momentum in the game. But Seth Curry wasn't going to allow the 76ers to fall too far behind before the half.

As he checked in for seven minutes in the second quarter, Curry put up another eight points, knocking down two of his four three-point attempts, totaling for 16 points before halftime. Although the Sixers were trailing by five points, it could've been a lot worse if Curry struggled to heat up as he did.

"He kind of saved us in that first half," said Sixers head coach Doc Rivers on Tuesday. "It's funny; it looked like (Seth) and Danny (Green) were the only two that had good rhythm early on. It was good that our team recognized it. Even Joel (Embiid), he hadn't shot the ball a couple of times, and he runs down and is running loop two, which is one of our sets for Seth. You know, that just tells you where our team is at right now. Like, they see a good guy got it going, they feed him, and they want him to keep it going. That's a good sign.

It was a good sign in more ways than one. Not only did the Sixers rely on the hot hand rather than force the ball to the usual suspects Joel Embiid and Tobias Harris, but they relied on Curry, who has struggled as of late, without hesitation. Since returning from a seven-game hiatus after testing positive for COVID-19, Curry struggled to drain more than 15 points in a single game.

On Tuesday night, the veteran guard produced 22 points for the 76ers in 29 minutes of action. His contributions allowed the Sixers to pull off a tough victory on the road in Sacramento to kick off the difficult four-game West Coast road trip. 

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter: @JGrasso_