Indiana Pacers News: Embiid dominates, injury updates, and playoff race

Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

The Pacers are injured and that’s an understatement. Joel Embiid is good at basketball, which is also an understatement. Tonight in Gainbridge Fieldhouse these two quantities met and it didn’t end up pretty for the Pacers.

Embiid dominates the Indiana Pacers……again.

And this is starting to become a bit of a theme whenever the Pacers play the 76ers. But the bigger issue that continues is that Myles Turner seems unable to really play against Embiid at any competitive level.

Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Myles Turner. But every single time we play the 76ers Myles seems to fall back into the shadows as it pertains to playing against Embiid. And last night was a night that we desperately needed him given we were down multiple players including Mathurin and Haliburton.

The Pacers and the playoff picture

With the loss the Pacers fall to 11th place in the eastern conference and outside of the play-in picture at the moment. Currently they are 1.5 games behind the Chicago Bulls for the final play-in spot, although its a debate whether or not the Pacers should want the 10th spot anyway due to lottery implications.

The Pacers still have plenty of time to make up the ground if they would like to try and push for the playoffs, but given the number of injury concerns the team currently has, it may be wise to pack it in for the year and try and up your lottery pick as best you can.

Trending. All time draft bust starting lineup. light

Injuries cotinue to plague the Pacers across the roster

Multiple players continue to struggle through injuries on the Pacers, the biggest names being Tyrese Haliburton and Bennedict Mathurin. It is expected that the Pacers are going to continue to be cautious with their young and developing guard rotation.

Our guess is that we won’t see these young stars much prior to the end of the season as Indiana starts to tie up lose ends on a season that was surprisingly good, but not yet where we want to be.