{"id":229605,"date":"2026-03-21T04:12:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T04:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/229605\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T04:12:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T04:12:25","slug":"vj-edgecombe-and-justin-edwards-have-career-nights-in-sixers-win-over-kings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/229605\/","title":{"rendered":"VJ Edgecombe and Justin Edwards have career nights in Sixers win over Kings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">The Sixers dominated the Kings in Sacramento, picking up a 139-118 win behind career nights from <a class=\"relative z-1 text-blue-mid hover:shadow-lightmode\" data-link-type=\"article-body\" href=\"https:\/\/www.inquirer.com\/topic\/vj-edgecombe\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">VJ Edgecombe<\/a> and Justin Edwards.<\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">The Kings (18-53) aren\u2019t the most competitive opponent the Sixers have seen recently, but there was plenty to like from the undermanned Sixers on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">Here\u2019s what we learned:<\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p type-interstitial text-primary\">\u00bb READ MORE: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" data-link-type=\"interstitial\" href=\"https:\/\/www.inquirer.com\/sixers\/sixers-ncaa-tournament-march-madness-jared-mccain-20260318.html\" class=\"no-underline text-blue-mid hover:shadow-lightmode\">Sixers fans should keep their eyes on these NBA draft prospects during March Madness<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The new Big Three?<\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">The Big Three the Sixers might have expected at the beginning of the year included <a class=\"relative z-1 text-blue-mid hover:shadow-lightmode\" data-link-type=\"article-body\" href=\"https:\/\/www.inquirer.com\/topic\/tyrese-maxey\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tyrese Maxey<\/a>, <a class=\"relative z-1 text-blue-mid hover:shadow-lightmode\" data-link-type=\"article-body\" href=\"https:\/\/www.inquirer.com\/topic\/joel-embiid\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Joel Embiid<\/a>, and <a class=\"relative z-1 text-blue-mid hover:shadow-lightmode\" data-link-type=\"article-body\" href=\"https:\/\/www.inquirer.com\/topic\/paul-george\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Paul George<\/a>. But with all three players sidelined, Edgecombe, Edwards, and Quentin Grimes have carried the load. All three had big nights in Sacramento.<\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">Edwards and Edgecombe both set career highs in points. Edwards finished with 32 points, while Edgecombe scored 38 along with 11 assists and five rebounds. <\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">It\u2019s been weighing a bit on Edgecombe, who joked after the Sixers\u2019 win over Portland on Sunday that he hadn\u2019t broken 30 since his debut. Edgecombe is the fourth rookie in franchise history to put up at least 30 points and 10 assists in a game, and joins Allen Iverson as the only rookies in franchise history to record 35 or more points and 10 or more assists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">Grimes put up a 27-point performance of his own, and each shot over 50% from the field. <\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">With Maxey out, <a class=\"relative z-1 text-blue-mid hover:shadow-lightmode\" data-link-type=\"article-body\" href=\"https:\/\/www.inquirer.com\/topic\/nick-nurse\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nick Nurse<\/a> has challenged Edgecombe to step up as one of the team\u2019s primary ballhandlers. It\u2019s been an up-and-down process. Edgecombe had nine points on 3-for-12 shooting against Denver on Tuesday. But against Sacramento, Edgecombe showed why he is such a key piece of the Sixers\u2019 future. Nurse wants Edgecombe to be aggressive and take 20 shots a game. His 16-for-28 shooting night is exactly what the Sixers have wanted.<\/p>\n<p>Three-point shooting<\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">A big reason that group was especially effective on Thursday was its three-point shooting. As a trio, they made 13 threes, the lion\u2019s share of the Sixers\u2019 17 made threes on 47.2% shooting from deep. Edwards hit a career-high seven three-pointers on 11 attempts. With every game, Edwards makes the case for why he should stay in the healthy rotation on a team low on effective three-point shooters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p type-interstitial text-primary\">\u00bb READ MORE: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" data-link-type=\"interstitial\" href=\"https:\/\/www.inquirer.com\/sixers\/joel-embiid-injury-history-denver-jokic-update-return-20260318.html\" class=\"no-underline text-blue-mid hover:shadow-lightmode\">Joel Embiid is not \u2018ducking\u2019 games in Denver. But it has become the epicenter of his injury-plagued Sixers career.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">In the previous 11 games, the Sixers shot just 27% from beyond the arc, which ranked last in the NBA. The last time the Sixers made 17 three-pointers was against Miami on Feb. 26, with both Maxey and Embiid still in the lineup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">Some of the help Thursday came from unexpected places. Before the 2025-26 season, Andre Drummond had made 23 total three-pointers in his 13 NBA seasons. In 2025-26, Drummond has made 26 three-pointers, including knocking down three corner threes against Sacramento on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sixers dominated the Kings in Sacramento, picking up a 139-118 win behind career nights from VJ Edgecombe&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122,104275],"class_list":["post-229605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-sixers-kings-takeaways-vj-edgecombe-justin-edwards-quentin-grimes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}