loss Wednesday to the Cavs<\/a>, much of the Sixers\u2019 early success stemmed from forced turnovers. They scored the game\u2019s first 13 points off turnovers and the first 13 fast-break points.\u00a0<\/p>\nWoes without the stars <\/p>\n
The Sixers\u2019 half-court offense was rough early in the second quarter without Maxey and Embiid.<\/p>\n
Head coach Nick Nurse turned to a bench-heavy lineup with no conventional point guard. The Sixers did not outperform that on-paper description.<\/p>\n
Trendon Watford missed two free throws and three close-range shots in his opening stint. Quentin Grimes got little reward for his aggression, going 1 for 5 from the floor in the first half. VJ Edgecombe was largely a spectator. The rookie only took four field goals in 20 first-half minutes and was scoreless until he made a free throw with 1:55 left in the second quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The offensive struggles continued once the Sixers\u2019 stars re-entered. The team remained cold beyond the arc (2 for 10 from three-point range in the first half) and the Pacers\u2019 bench played very well. Former Sixers center Tony Bradley gave Indiana good minutes and helped the Pacers build a lead as high as 10 points in the second quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maxey at ball-hunting best <\/p>\n
The Sixers’ starters regained the lead in the third quarter. Edgecombe laid in his own miss to lift his team to a 63-62 edge.<\/p>\n
Edgecombe was far more involved in the Sixers’ offense in the third quarter, often bringing the ball up, running two-man actions with Embiid, and finding opportunities to drive downhill. The highlight of the third period came when he jammed in a giant one-handed, and-one dunk on Bradley.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Sixers still did not dramatically improve their shooting night. The team was subpar from both three-point range (29.4 percent) and at the foul line (66.7 percent).<\/p>\n
Siakam’s corner three gave the Pacers an 88-86 lead early in the fourth quarter, but the Sixers replied with a 7-0 run capped by Maxey swiping a steal, surging ahead and ultimately knocking down two free throws. <\/p>\n
The Pacers’ sloppiness was a problem throughout the game \u2014 the final points off turnovers margin was 28-7 \u2014 and Maxey was at his ball-hunting best. On top of the possession, his steals tend to carry extra weight because of the strong odds that he profits in transition. There’s sometimes a fine line between sniffing out steals and playing sound defense, but Maxey is generally the kind of player who should have the green light and he’s made great progress defensively overall the last several years. <\/p>\n
Led by Maxey and Embiid, the Sixers pulled away and avoided any tension in the final minutes. They’ll look for a 2-0 start to their week Tuesday night vs. the Suns. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sixers worked through some shaky patches and handled business Monday night against the Pacers. They notched a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774],"tags":[7,113,126,3866,936,6,114,207,5902,4186,29161,1263,971],"class_list":{"0":"post-549037","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indiana-pacers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-indiana","10":"tag-indiana-pacers","11":"tag-indianapacers","12":"tag-joel-embiid","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-pacers","15":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","16":"tag-sixers-analysis","17":"tag-sixers-news","18":"tag-sixers-observations","19":"tag-tyrese-maxey","20":"tag-vj-edgecombe"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115928064009769028","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}