The Philadelphia 76ers got back at it on Saturday night when they took on the Indiana Pacers looking to get off on the right foot, but it did not work out in their favor. Indiana forced a large number of turnovers and they raced out to an early lead on their way to a 127-121 win over Philadelphia.
T.J. Warren—who has been a thorn in the side of the Sixers all season—scored 29 points in the first half on his way to 53 for the game and Philadelphia just was not able to find an answer for him at all on this night.
With that said, here are three observations that were seen in this loss for Philadelphia:
Turnovers
Coach Brett Brown was very wary of turnovers heading into this matchup due to the smaller Pacers wanting to get out and run. Philadelphia committed 14 turnovers in the first half which allowed Indiana to get out and run and in the lead at halftime. Shake Milton got off to a tough start which then led to a heated verbal exchange with Joel Embiid. He then got into foul trouble and that led to a lot of Raul Neto minutes.
In the second half, Philadelphia was able to figure out their issues and they were able to creep back into the game which then led to a lead of six after three. They only had four turnovers in the quarter mostly with Neto running things on offense. Milton then came back in and while he did not commit a turnover the rest of the way, he did not make the same impact expected of him. He finished scoreless and three assists with the three turnovers. The team finished with 21 turnovers on the night.
Double teams
As expected, Indiana sent waves of double teams and defenders towards Embiid. It was a mixed bag in terms of results as there were times when he was able to attack relentlessly and then there were times where he did not react quick enough and he had a bad turnover. He also had four assists so that is something positive he can take moving forward.
Overall, Embiid was something special on the offensive end. Indiana only had Myles Turner to throw at him and he feasted with an array of post moves and just sheer force on his way to a huge night. Without Domantas Sabonis, that was exactly what he was supposed to do in this type of game. He finished with 41 points, 21 rebounds, and three blocks with the four assists.
Tobias Harris’ versatility
Harris had a really solid night overall. There were plenty of instances where he threw the offense on his back and kept them afloat when things weren’t going so well in the first half. He was aggressive taking 29 shots on the night and taking a good amount of 3-pointers with eight to score 30 points.
Defensively, he wasn’t awful. Sure, he got torched a few times by Warren, but everybody got torched by Warren on this night. Harris had a steal and a block and he moved his feet well all night long. He took steps forward towards that two-way level Brown wants him at. [lawrence-related id=35959,35953,35945]