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The Philadelphia 76ers (29-14) began a five-game road trip with a matchup against the Indiana Pacers (25-20), who were led by new star Pascal Siakam and without Tyrese Haliburton due to injury. It didn’t matter in the slightest that Hali was out as the Pacers smashed the Sixers to pieces, wrapping up the game in three quarters and handing Philly a 134-122 loss.
Let’s break down the Sixers' clunker that ended a six-game winning streak.
76ers player notes:
Joel Embiid: 31 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 11-20 FG shooting
The big fella was named an All-Star starter, making it seven consecutive appearances for the superstar. He certainly didn’t play up to the standard he was at the last game, which was fine. But the way in which he look like he used up all his XP points the prior game wasn’t great — and he looked that way before tweaking his knee late in the first half. There was a stretch early in the game where he took the ball himself and got into rhythm with his foul-line jumpers but those efforts were too scattered.
Embiid has historically put beatdowns on Myles Turner but this game was a massive flip of the script. While it wasn’t that Turner directly dominated Embiid, it was that he was really balling, tallying 20 points on 7-12 shooting and nine rebounds.
Tyrese Maxey: 22 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists, 7-17 FG shooting
With his three-point shot unable to find its way in the land of cornfields, Maxey took to the paint and was nothing short of brilliant. He even busted out a post move through a foul in the first half and had some nice moments defensively. Kudos to Maxey for looking like the lone Sixer who was competent for more than a few minutes at a time.
Pacers player notes:
Pascal Siakam: 26 points, 13 rebounds, 10 assists, 9-13 FG shooting
The Pacers' new star had a very solid night, doing a little bit of everything without the All-Star floor general in action. Everything ran so smoothly for Indiana and having a big, versatile forward like the former Nick Nurse pupil was monumental. It was lame that he had to play a bunch in garbage time to get his triple-double but he got there nonetheless. This was his first win with Indiana.
Game recap:
1st half
The 76ers didn’t have to worry about Haliburton in their matchup with the slumping Indiana squad but were still down numerous key players of their own. With Tobias Harris, De'Anthony Melton, Marcus Morris Sr. and Robert Covington out, Philly bumped Patrick Beverley to the starting lineup, going with a smaller group around Joel Embiid with Kelly Oubre Jr. moving down to the three. It was a lineup that had not seen the floor yet this season until tip-off.
The Pacers raced out to six unanswered points in the first minute, living up to their name by pushing the pace as hard as they could. The 76ers tripped over their own feet on what felt like each offensive possession. Defensively, they had even less of a clue, failing to match the intensity from the other side and falling into an 11-point hole in under five minutes.
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Danuel House Jr. and K.J. Martin were the first subs of the game. House scored on a fancy reverse layup after dusting Myles Turner on a closeout and then assisted Embiid on a layup in what was an unusually slow start for the superstar big man. Jaden Springer made his way into the game in the first quarter, too, as Embiid started to lock in and go to work with three straight middies. Still, everyone on the Pacers ate due to some porous Philly defense.
An up-and-under post bucket from Maxey stood out even more in what was otherwise a very putrid start for the 76ers. Bennedict Mathurin started to heat up with a series of strong takes to the hoop. He got some tough, tough shots to go through despite strong contests from Paul Reed. House continued to put the pedal to the medal with his own strong drives, giving the Sixers a flicker of life.
Even with the 76ers playing lifelessly, allowing penetration that opened up cutting lanes and missing all but one of their first 10 threes to start the game, the deficit hung around just around 10 points for a while. Embiid went down after a shot attempt and came up hobbling in pain. He seemed to be fine walking around afterward but it was just the very last thing they needed.
Maxey got all the way in his bag on his takes to the rim, overcoming an 0-5 three-point shooting half to remain a solid source of offense for Philly. With crafty buckets and drawn fouls, he looked quite good and determined. Failures to make extra rotations on the perimeter and to get back in transition fueled one of the worst defensive performances all season from this team.
Halftime mercifully arrived with the 76ers trailing 73-61. Somehow, a half spawned from the depths of hell — in which Indiana shot 50 percent from deep and the Sixers shot 18.2 percent — only put Philly down by a dozen.
2nd half
The Pacers came right out of the locker room and took it to the 76ers, scoring 10 unanswered points. Siakam thrashes the Sixers' plans on both ends. Back-to-back triples, one from Maxey and another from Nico Batum, got Philly going…for like a few seconds. Maxey certainly played like he wanted to win, showing some urgency on defense and going at guys on the other end, but it was hardly enough. Even he had some poor moments sprinkled in.
The 76ers trailed by 25 points after the first six minutes of the third quarter. Seven Pacers made it to double digits in the point column by then but none had 20. Meanwhile, Embiid and Maxey had each reached 20 and Nico Batum had 10. Siakam spearheaded the efforts but this was an all-around beatdown from the spunky Indiana squad.
Furkan Korkmaz made his first appearance of the game with the 76ers down by 25. He fed Oubre on a backdoor cut with a behind-the-back pass in typical Furk fashion. That was about the only cool thing from Philly. Even Embiid keeping his 30-point-game streak alive for the 22nd game didn’t feel like anything special, as it did nothing to change the course of the game. This was not the way for him to only have to play three quarters tonight.
Two-way players Terquavion Smith and Rick Council IV started the fourth quarter. This time, the 76ers starting the fourth with their backups did not come about in a celebratory fashion.
Council got right to work missing layups and Smith wasn’t able to get a shot to go early, either, but he did feed Reed on a very nice pick-and-roll. The athletic wing eventually got his first NBA bucket with a scoop layup through a foul and later hit a triple. He also took care of business at the free-throw line, going 4-5, on his way to scoring 11 points on 3-6 shooting. Smith had five assists and three steals while missing all six of his attempts from the field.
The garbage-time Sixers managed to put a dent in the deficit. The Pacers were apparently scared enough to put Siakam and the rest of their non-Turner starters back in as their lead fell to 14. The lipstick on this pig of a game didn’t hide from how disappointing it was. Being decimated with injuries is tough to overcome, sure, but the 76ers played like they internalized that obstacle far too deeply.
Random tidbits:
- Maxey may not have been named an All-Star starter but he ranked second in player voting, which is a nice consolation prize.
The 76ers will face the Denver Nuggets on Saturday at 5:30 PM EST as a part of the NBA's Rivals Week.
