The NBA In-Season Tournament has officially made its way to the City of Brotherly Love. The Philadelphia 76ers (8-2) faced the Indiana Pacers (7-4) after squaring off on Sunday. This time, with tournament implications in play, the Sixers lost their winning streak by a final score of 132-126.

Let's break down the Sixers' first home In-Season Tournament game.

Sixers player notes:

Joel Embiid: 39 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals, 11-22 FG shooting

Embiid was listed as questionable with left hip soreness but ended up playing tonight. He bully-balled Indiana into foul trouble on their first- and second-string centers in no time, forcing his way into the paint for push shots and hitting his freebies. Few big players, let alone bigs, can be automatic from the foul line like Embiid.

Tyrese Maxey: 27 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 9-23 FG shooting

Fresh off of a career-best game, Maxey only attempted two shots in the first quarter. He got going as the game went on and made some crowd-hyping plays in the fourth quarter to get the game knotted up. Maxey may sometimes be down but he's clearly never out. That he was down in the first place, however, was something Philly could not overcome.

Tobias Harris: 22 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 11-17 FG shooting

Without Harris' newfound obsession with driving to the rim, the Sixers would have fallen out of this race much earlier. His incredible efficiency served as Philly's backbone with Indiana shooting the ball so well.

Pacers player notes:

Tyrese Haliburton: 33 points, 6 rebounds, 15 assists, 2 steals, 11-18 FG shooting

Haliburton was absolutely cooking tonight from start to finish. He shot the heck out of the ball and continued to slice and dice the Sixers with wicked playmaking. No matter who stood in front of him, he got a step on them and kept the well-oiled Indiana scoring machine churning.

Obi Toppin: 26 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 12-15 FG shooting

Haliburton drives the Pacers' breakneck pace and Toppin greases the wheels. He runs the floor with so much gusto and can finish below the rim almost as well as he can throw down a dunk. His count of reverse/scoop layups tonight must have been in the dozens.

Game recap:

1st half

The Sixers needed to make another lineup change with Nicolas Batum out due to personal reasons again. Robert Covington made his first start with Philly for the first time since November, 9th of 2018. Philly was not shy to admit that facing this supercharged Indiana team was tough after playing them on Sunday. This matchup had the top spot in the teams' In-Season Tournament group at stake after they each won their opening IST game.

Covington started out on Haliburton but the Pacers got up the court so fast, even on made buckets, that he didn’t always get the chance to match up with him. Harris scored the first six points of the game for Philly — talk about being a Sixer, hehe — as Embiid and Maxey each missed their first two looks. Nick Nurse called a timeout less than four minutes into the game as the Sixers trailed 14-6.

Embiid found Harris on a cut for another bucket and then got Myles Turner to commit his second foul of the game, hitting the subsequent free throws. Embiid got Turner's back, Jalen Smith, to commit a pair of fouls quickly, too. The Sixers went to a zone defense and started to come around on offense with Embiid asserting his size.

Marcus Morris Sr. was one of the Sixers' first subs along with Patrick Beverley. Danuel House Jr. made an early appearance, subbing out RoCo, and Furkan Korkmaz came in for De'Anthony Melton. While Embiid was a wrecking ball — he drew two fouls on third-stringer Isaiah Jackson, too — Haliburton was cooking to the tune of four threes, four boards and three dimes in the opening period.

Maxey got on the board with a step-back triple to start the second quarter and then got run into by Turner as he tried to set a screen, sending him back to the bench with his third foul. The Pacers played defense higher in the backcourt, pressuring the Sixers near the halfcourt line. Although it exposed the lack of ball-handling outside of Maxey, he and Harris helped Philly chip away at the deficit by continuing to attack the rim. The fact that the Sixers can do that now with Embiid resting is monumental.

Jackson picked up his third foul trying to keep up with Maxey as he hedged a screen, sending Smith back in. But he got shaken up on a play on defense and went back to the locker room, sending Jackson back in as Embiid returned. Smith was later ruled out with a head injury. Disaster struck for Indy as Jackson landed on Maxey as he hit a layup, giving him four fouls. Turner subbed in. This is the price to pay when you can’t match up physically with Embiid.

Despite the foul trouble to their bigs, the Pacers offense was as relentless as ever. Haliburton was on an absolute heater as a shooter and their frequent movement off the ball made them tough to contain, especially as they shot the lights out from deep. They went up by 12 at one point with a small-ball lineup where Toppin was the biggest player and Aaron Nesmith guarded Embiid. Constant double-teams on Embiid made it tough for Philly to dump the ball to him in the post.

The Pacers led 63-54 at the half.

2nd half

Embiid scored an and-one over Turner at the start of the half, sending Jackson back in. Nurse was called for a technical foul, giving Haliburton a free throw as the Pacers went up by 13. Embiid committed his third foul early in the half trying to contest a Jackson shot. The Indiana big man missed a pair of free throws, gifting free Chick-fil-A to the crowd. Harris' resilient downhill attacks around and through defenders helped the Sixers get back into it.

Melton, meanwhile, is someone who should not look to score at the rim if there are defenders in front of him. He shot the ball very well from deep and drew a few fouls on his drives but continued to try (and fail) to score layups in traffic. He also hit a moving triple and fed Embiid in the post to get the deficit down to three.

While his deficiency on offense would have made it tougher for the Sixers to keep up with the Pacers, Jaden Springer not getting any run surprised me a bit. Going to Morris over him again did not strike me as a great move and with Philly's willingness to play smaller, Springer's athleticism could have been helpful. A chase-down block artist and strong point-of-attack defender definitely could have had a role, even a small one, in a game plan against Indiana.

Morris did at least hit a fallaway jumper that cut the deficit to two. Melton continued to draw fouls and help the Sixers pull within one to end the third quarter. Although he committed five fouls in the first three quarters, he was huge for Philly tonight.

Harris had to leave the fourth quarter momentarily due to concussion protocol but came back quickly. K.J. Martin was the Pacers' pick to shoot his free throws after he had to leave the game. With the lead being ping-ponged, Maxey hit a step-back three to tie the game and then some free throws to take the lead to the sound of some faint MVP chants. The Philly crowd was feeding into the In-Season Tournament hype, going bonkers when Maxey threw down a dunk to take back the scoreboard advantage.

Hey, remember when the Pacers picked Martin for those free throws? Plot twist! The Sixers were actually supposed to pick who shot them. After what felt like a 90-hour-long review from the officials, Maxey got to shoot a pair of free throws and hit them both. You only get THIS level of officiating blunders in the In-Season Tournament, folks.

Embiid blew an open dunk and got hit with a charge call as the Pacers clung to a lead. The Sixers closed the game out with PatBev in the place of RoCo with the other starters. They held on and got close but Indiana kept the responses coming. Haliburton hit a step-back, three-point dagger to seal the deal for Indiana, who takes the lead in East Group A for the time being.

Random rumblings:

  • The Sixers' In-Season Tournament court was jarring to see in person. It looks very, very different but I will say that it looks much better in person than in pictures and on TV. All the invocations of that one Seinfeld scene made me chuckle.

The Sixers are back in action tomorrow, hosting the Boston Celtics for the second Wednesday in a row.