PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76es had a chance to steal a win in Tuesday’s in-season tournament matchup with the Indiana Pacers. They trailed by as many as 13, but they worked their way back.
Eventually, a lack of execution and defensive struggles against Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton led to a 132-126 loss at home. Joel Embiid led the Sixers with 39 points, 12 rebounds and six assists, but he had five turnovers on the night, including two at critical junctures in the fourth quarter.
Embiid committed an offensive foul with Philadelphia down by four. Indiana turned that into a layup. He then had a questionable travel call with 2:17 left and Philadelphia down six. There was a weird play on which he picked up his dribble and had to launch a bad 3 with 1:22 left that led to a Haliburton triple to seal it for the Pacers.
“I picked up my dribble,” Embiid said. “I was trying to find something or somebody. I was waiting for somebody to get open. I didn’t feel like I had an angle to make a play and pass it to somebody in a low clock. I think at that moment, we had three seconds left, I had to shoot it. It was short. That was it.”
Overall, Embiid and Tyrese Maxey combined for four turnovers in the fourth quarter. They just weren’t as sharp as they normally are on the offensive end.
“We had a couple weird plays there,” acknowledged coach Nick Nurse. “I think Joel ended up that one — we outleted up the floor to him on a rebound. He brought that one up. I’m not sure he traveled on that one. That was one of them. Obviously, the other one was a really bad possession where it was just kind of a chaotic thing from the start. I think it started in the backcourt and ended up continuing on.”
Also, there were some weird bounces that went Indiana’s way. Embiid turned for a dunk that would have tied the score and it bounced out for a miss and the Pacers scored on the other end.
“Listen, I think there were some good ones,” added Nurse. “Joel turns to dunk on him and there were some chances down there that, again, you’re gonna probably think that him turning around and dunking the ball is gonna be a basket. That kinda summed it up the way the ball was kinda bouncing tonight a little bit, but we’ll take a look at it a little bit in the film.”
On the flip side, the Sixers generated numerous good looks. They just weren’t able to make them.
“We got some good looks, though,” added Maxey. “I know like three or four possessions in a row that we missed. Joel got a layup he missed, a dunk, I missed two wide-open 3s. (De’Anthony) Melt missed a 3, but yeah. The ball kinda didn’t bounce our way. Can’t be too upset about it, but we got another one tomorrow.”
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