1 Overperformer, 1 underperformer, 1 middle ground in Pacers loss to 76ers
By Mueez Azfar
Underperformer: Andrew Nembhard
Truth be told, there weren't many full-on duds in this game, as the one surefire dud in the first half turned it around in the second, leading to the dud title being taken off him. However, if there is one player whose mistakes cost the Pacers some serious momentum that they could have used, it was definitely Andrew Nembhard.
While Nembhard's on-paper stats don't seem like anything remarkable, his play on the court wasn't great, to say the least. While his scoring numbers don't exactly stand out, at four points on 2/4 shooting, that was not what earned him the "dud" label.
In the final minute of the first quarter, with the Pacers down 27-34 with possession, Nembhard inexplicably committed three turnovers in a row, first by losing his dribble into the hands of Furkan Korkmaz, then by going out of bounds and finally by double-dribbling, as the Pacers extended their lead to double-digits going into the second quarter.
While three turnovers at the end of the first quarter may not seem like much at first, it is important to know that the Pacers were slowly chipping away at the Sixers lead and were doing a good job until those turnovers sucked all their momentum out.
In a game of decent performances, Andrew Nembhard's three turnovers were not something to be proud of and ended up deeply costing Indiana in the long run when they couldn't get a stop and probably wished they got those possessions back.