PHILADELPHIA -- It has reached the point where the Philadelphia 76ers are grading their victories.

"The mood in the coaches' room was very somber," coach Brett Brown said after his team beat the Sacramento Kings 122-119 on Monday night. "We didn't handle the end of the game like we need to."

The Sixers escaped only when Kings guard Arron Afflalo, wide open in the right corner, missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer at the buzzer.

There was much to celebrate otherwise for the Sixers, who in recent years have been one of the NBA's worst teams. They rallied from a 16-point second-quarter deficit to snap a two-game losing streak, and finished January with a 10-5 record, their best month since going 13-4 in January 2012.

"You walk out of January proud of our growth," Brown said.

Robert Covington had 23 points, 10 rebounds and four steals for Philadelphia, which won without rookie center Joel Embiid and withstood the 46-point, 15-rebound, five-assist performance of Sacramento center DeMarcus Cousins.

"This team has grown a lot," Covington said. "We're showing a lot of poise. And it's still early. There's still a lot of time for us to really grow even more."

Dario Saric contributed 17 points off the bench for the Sixers.

Ex-King Nik Stauskas had 16 points, and Gerald Henderson and Jahlil Okafor chipped in 15 each for Philadelphia.

The Sixers, who scored a season-high 74 points in the second half, took the lead for good on Covington's tip-in with 2:22 left in the third quarter, and were up 110-102 with 3:32 left in the game.

The Kings twice sliced the deficit to one in the closing minutes, the last time at 120-119 on Matt Barnes' 3-pointer with 5.7 seconds left.

Henderson made two free throws with 4.9 seconds remaining to put Philadelphia up by three, but Afflalo came up empty on his 3-point attempt.

"We (stunk) in the third quarter, and gave them life," Cousins said, referring to a period in which Sacramento was outscored 42-30. "Even with that being said we had a great chance to win this game. We just came up short."

Okafor, who did not play in Philadelphia's four previous games, started in place of Embiid, the team's leading scorer and rebounder.

Embiid sat out his fifth game in the past six with an injury the team is describing as a left knee contusion. Embiid said after facing Houston last Friday that doctors diagnosed the injury as a bone bruise.

Brown said before the game Embiid had more soreness in the knee after playing against the Rockets.

Cousins scored all 18 of his first-half points in the opening quarter, a period in which the Kings shot 66.7 percent from the floor to assume a 35-21 lead.

Sacramento went up 46-30 midway through the second quarter, but Philadelphia ended the half with an 18-5 run to make it 55-48 at the break. Stauskas, Covington and Sergio Rodriguez all nailed 3-pointers in that flurry.

Sacramento's Willie Cauley-Stein added 12 of his 17 points in the half. Ersan Ilyasova and Okafor paced the Sixers with nine apiece before the break.

Still down 76-69 midway through the third quarter, the Sixers went on 21-9 run featuring some fine all-around play by Saric, the rookie forward from Croatia.

He sank a 3-pointer and a jumper, then found Covington and Nerlens Noel for easy baskets.

Covington capped the run with a court-length inbounds pass to Henderson for a dunk with 1.8 seconds left in the period, leaving Philadelphia in front 90-85.

The Sixers' 42 third-quarter points represented their highest total in any period since January 2014.

NOTES: The 76ers are listing C Joel Embiid as doubtful for Wednesday's game at Dallas and Thursday's contest at San Antonio with a left knee contusion, though coach Brett Brown said Embiid will not make the trip at all. "Nobody needs to feel like there's a conspiracy here," Brown said. "There isn't. It's just we feel like we can do the best job for Joel in this environment." ... Sacraamento C DeMarcus Cousins was named Western Conference Player of the Week after averaging 27.8 points, 14.5 rebounds and six assists last week. ... Philadelphia signed G Chasson Randle, previously with the team on a pair of 10-day contracts, for the rest of the season. He did not play Monday.