The Indiana Pacers started off strong but a horrible second half caused them to fall to the 76ers.
For a while, it looked like the Indiana Pacers were going to beat the Philadephia 76ers in Sunday’s matinee showdown. Then, one of the worst second halves of the season happens and the Pacers got clobbered.
The Pacers were winning 59-51 at halftime. They scored 34 points in the second quarter and the team was humming heading into halftime.
They, they only scored 30 in the entire second half, fewer than the total they had in the second quarter. It was ugly. Nothing was going in. Every shot was short. Every play was thwarted. Every pass felt slower. It was an ugly 24 minutes.
And now, the Pacers lose the tiebreaker to the 76ers, meaning that if the teams finish with the same record, Philly gets the better playoff seed. It was a game with massive implications, and the Pacers came out flat in the second half.
Only two Pacers shot over 50 percent from the field, and it was Kyle O’Quinn and Doug McDermott, who both don’t put up a high volume of shots. Indiana’s usual offensive contributors pretty much all couldn’t get it going, and the Pacers dropped the game.
Perhaps my favorite highlight from a game that featured few was Cory Joseph putting James Ennis in a spin cycle:
COJO ⏮ pic.twitter.com/BjZUF0EEnf
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) March 10, 2019
Make your free throws, guys.
The Pacers lost by 17. The Pacers missed 15 free throws.
I’m not normally a reductive guy, but that was a HUGE part of the game today. The Pacers did well to get to the line in a game that featured many whistles; they got up 37 free throws attempts. But they only made 22, with Bojan Bogdanovic, Darren Collison, and Domantas Sabonis combining for 12 misses. It was brutal.
Speaking of missing…
The free throws were more obvious, but after a solid shooting first half, the Pacers finished the game with 37.3 percent shooting from the field. That’s how bad they were in the second half offensively. Credit the Sixers defense, but the number of close-range misses the Pacers had was startling.
Joel Embiid: very good player.
Joel Embiid returned from injury in this game and was… incredible. He had 33 points and 12 rebounds in just 27 minutes, and his defense was awesome. This guy is a beast who gives Myles Turner fits. He ate Indiana alive today.
Player grades:
The Pacers take on the Knicks at home on Tuesday in a game they absolutely must win.