The Basketball Gods haven't been super kind to our Sacramento Kings this season. The Kings are surrendering the fourth-highest opponent 3-point percentage on wide-open threes (40.8%, per NBA.com). They can't hit a three to save their life (22nd in team 3-point percentage). And their clutch game win percentage is down (40%) from prior seasons despite rostering two elite closers (De'Aaron Fox and DeMar DeRozan).
Still, in life, it is always better to be a glass-half-full type of person rather than a glass-half-empty one. And despite the Kings' misfortune, there is one team that has clearly had it worse than them.
The Philadelphia 76ers may be the unluckiest team in the league this season
The Kings may have it bad, but the Philadelphia 76ers have it absolutely terrible. Outside of (maybe) the New Orleans Pelicans, the 76ers have had the worst luck in the NBA this season.
The 76ers haven't had a ton of injuries across the board. But what has really hurt them are the injuries to their star players. The best way to understand this is by looking at Spotrac's player games lost counter.
On the season, the 76ers have the seventh-fewest player games lost due to injury (45 games). However, they are fourth in dollars lost due to injuries (nearly 21 million). That means that the players who are getting paid the most (aka their best players) are the ones missing time. For reference, the Kings are 14th in player games lost to injury but only 27th in money lost.
When you look at who has missed games for them this year, it adds up. Tyrese Maxey has missed six games, Paul George has missed ten games, and Joel Embiid has missed a whopping 17 games.
Losing their key guys especially hurts the 76ers because they are a top-heavy team that doesn't have a lot of depth (a side effect of the Big Three model). As a result, the team is 7-16 and 12th in the Eastern Conference.
To make matters worse, Embiid had to exit the 76ers' Friday night clash with the Indiana Pacers (a game they ended up losing) with a sinus fracture.
Joel Embiid has suffered a sinus fracture, per @ShamsCharania
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 14, 2024
He will be further evaluated this weekend pic.twitter.com/5eCFnQTyBQ
Embiid will be evaluated at some point this weekend. Hopefully, it is not a serious injury. Even if it isn't, though, to lose Embiid in the middle of a very winnable game on a freak play is just another tragedy in the series of unfortunate events that have befallen this 76ers' season. Kings fans need to count their lucky stars that they are not the 76ers.