What is the story about?
Even wins like this come with their bumps and bruises.
The Sixers knocked off the Indiana Pacers 105-94 Friday night.
They are now 44-37 and can finish no worse than the eighth seed in the East after the Charlotte Hornets lost earlier in the night to the Detroit Pistons.
Tyrese Maxey impressively battled his way to 32 points, eight rebounds, and five assists. 27 of his x came before tweaking his right pinky late in the third quarter. He was somehow still the only other Sixer than Paul George to hit
a three for the first 45 minutes of this game. George put up 21 shooting 9-of-19 from the floor and 3-of-9 from three along with five boards and two assists.
VJ Edgecombe had 16 on 7-of-14 shooting with nine rebounds and five assists.
The Sixers were down Joel Embiid (appendectomy recovery) and Johni Broome (meniscus tear). Cam Payne (hamstring strain) is also on the injury report although the Sixers requested waivers for him earlier in the day. The tanking Pacers had eight players sidelined with injury.
Here are some thoughts at the buzzer.
First Quarter
- It was kind of cool to see the Sixers be selective with wearing the black jerseys on the road this year. They only donned them at the Bucks, Raptors, Celtics and these Pacers. Anyways, a 1-of-6 start from the field for the Sixers helped the Pacers open the game on a 9-3 run. Indy moved the ball around well, making four of their first five threes of the night swinging into good looks.
- Despite Sixers Summer League alum Jalen Slawson chasing him down to block a fast break dunk, George’s smooth start settled things down a bit. He knocked down a pair of threes and a midrange pull-up. Had he been able to complete the fast break his own steal had started, he would have capped off a 10-2 Sixers’ run.
- Quentin Grimes appeared to get his hand banged up somewhere late in the quarter. He was able to finish a cut with a layup after the fact, but was shaking it out the entire time and turned the ball over trying to just go left.
- Edgecombe shot just 2-of-5 in the first but he was flying around defensively. He was responsible for two steals as well as this block he got all the way up for. Once they began to pick up stops the Sixers were able to get out to a seven-point lead.
Second Quarter
- The Sixers kept that groove going over quarters. Andre Drummond opened the second barreling down Micah Potter in the paint for a two-handed slam. Edgecombe picked off a crosscourt pass and found Justin Edwards to run a give-and-go for the alley oop.
- The Pacers couldn’t stop giving the ball away — they turned it over 11 times in the first half, but they opened this quarter shooting it really well again. Starting the second 6-of-10 from the floor extinguished the Sixers’ hopes of an extended run.
- Maxey was 6-of-14 from the field in the first half, a good showing considering he was 1-of-6 from three. After a bad miss from deep Kate Scott went on to speculate that something happened to tweak that right pinky over the last three games. Everything is just super neat right now.
- The full-court heave by Maxey that went in just too late to beat the buzzer wasn’t improbable by Sixers standards, but the wedgie Kelly Oubre Jr. had was one of the weirdest shots of all time. He somehow got so much English on a layup it rimmed all the way out, then off the rim to get itself stuck in between the backboard. Despite the odd experience of those two shots happening very close to each other, the Sixers’ lead remained at seven at the break.
Third Quarter
- The Pacers opened the second half 5-of-7 from the field to quickly tie the game up. This was all before Maxey got shaken up again, this time his left wrist. It happened as he was attempting to drive, but got tied up with Quentin Jackson and hit the deck. He stayed in the game but was favoring it quite a bit.
- The Sixers were able to halt that momentum again, but they continued to struggle to build a ton of their own. Maxey got a floater to go and got to the line a couple more times but still looked very hampered. George got jumpers to fall at a steady but slow rate.
- Now that he was primed for it, Maxey had a collision with Jay Huff that caused him pain in both hands. He was really favoring that right pinky, and finally did check out of the game and head back to the locker room. Ironically, it was the first couple of minutes the Sixers were able to sustain a double digit lead as they led by 12.
Fourth Quarter
- The Sixers started the fourth 2-of-10 as the Pacers wormed their way back into the game. After a couple minutes Maxey did return to the game and continued to take punishment. The layup that Jarace Walker blocked looked especially painful.
- Every time the Pacers did make things interesting, the Sixers did put together some sort of a run to stop it, it just never looked impressive. Not making a single three-pointer in the second half will do that. The 7-0 run they put together took over four minutes to put together.
- Finally the three-point draught was broken by Oubre, the team’s first since the first quarter. The Pacers responded in turn by snapping a scoreless stretch that lasted over seven minutes. Jumpers from Maxey and PG did finally end one that was as unpleasant as a double digit lead win could be.
