Game Rewind: Pacers 89, 76ers 106

After missing the first eight games following the All-Star break with a sore knee, Joel Embiid picked Sunday's matchup against the Pacers to return to action.

As a force down low, Embiid tangled up the Pacers' entire frontline with foul trouble, preventing Indiana from ever establishing a rhythm as the Pacers were overtaken in the second half by the 76ers, falling 106-89 on Sunday evening.

"We got to stay together," said head coach Nate McMillan. "We got to keep working and put together a 48-minute game. Tonight, I thought we got off to a good start. Second half, we just weren’t able to score, didn’t get the ball movement, execution."

While the Pacers (42-25) were unable to slow down Embiid, who finished with 33 points and 12 rebounds, they also had some self-inflicted damage at the free throw line, where they made just 22-of-37 (59.5 percent) attempts on the night, the most misses they've had at the line all season.

"We would've won the game if we made our free throws," Myles Turner said. "That was big. I don't know where that came from. I think we missed like 15 free throws. That’s on us, there’s no coach, no nothing to do about that. You’ve got to make free throws."

A combination of the missed free throws and a disastrous third quarter in which they registered just 11 points led to the loss at the Wells Fargo Center — a loss that gave the 76ers (42-25) a 3-1 series win on the season, giving them the tiebreaker should the teams finish with the same record and dropping the Pacers into the fourth seed.

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The Pacers got a strong performance from Bojan Bogdanovic, who finished with a team-high 18 points, but 15 of them came in the first half as the entire offense was kept in check for the second half.

Indiana's rotations were in flux the whole game due to foul trouble. Just minutes into the second half, both Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis had picked up four fouls. With neither forwards able to stay on the floor, Indiana's offense cratered, failing to reach 20 points in either of the final two quarters as the Pacers dropped their second consecutive game.

"We've got to figure out a way to get ourselves back into that Pacer mode, where we're moving the ball, driving, kicking, making plays for each other," explained Thaddeus Young. "Right now, we're just out of sync and we just have to get back to it."

Bogdanovic helped set the tempo for the Pacers early in the game, scoring seven first-quarter points before picking up his second foul and having to take a seat on the bench.

In addition to having Bogdanovic and Myles Turner dealing with foul trouble, the Pacers' free throw struggles were apparent early, making just 2-of-7 from the stripe to start the game. Despite their struggles at the line, however, the Pacers only trailed the 76ers 26-25 after one quarter of play in Philadelphia.

With the second quarter underway, Indiana's offense got cooking, embarking on runs of 13-2 and 10-2 to build a 14-point lead with 4:23 remaining in the half.

The 76ers quickly offered a response, getting a three from J.J. Redick and a layup from Mike Scott as Philly began to charge back into the game with an impactful 16-5 run. Luckily for the Pacers, a late three from Bogdanovic helped Indiana enter the half with a 59-51 advantage.

To begin the second half, Indiana's foul trouble continued as Turner picked up his fourth foul while defending Joel Embiid. After Sabonis replaced Turner, he quickly picked up his fourth guarding Embiid as well, leaving Indiana's bigs in jeopardy.

The Pacers' offense struggled for the entire quarter, scoring a season-low 11 points on 3-of-20 shooting and not scoring a point for the final 3:30 of the frame. But the Pacers still held strong on defense, holding the 76ers to only 21 points as Philadelphia took a 72-70 lead into the fourth.

The 76ers began the fourth the same way they ended the third, with stifling defense against the Pacers. The 76ers opened with a 6-0 burst to take an eight-point lead, triggering a quick timeout from McMillan just 1:13 into the quarter.

Right when it seemed the Pacers might be climbing out of the hole, getting back-to-back buckets from Doug McDermott and Darren Collison, Embiid delivered an and-one bucket, picking up a foul on Thaddeus Young.

From there, Embiid and the 76ers continued to put their mark on the game, preventing Indiana from ever getting anything going on offense as Philadelphia's reserves closed out the 17-point 76ers win.

"All of them hurt," McMillan said when asked about the loss. "Certainly, this game, with a team so close to you (in the standings), big game. Had an opportunity to split the series and didn't get that done."

Indiana's 11 points in the third quarter tied the lowest amount of they've had in any quarter this season.

The Pacers were outscored in the second half 55-30.

Indiana shot a season-high 37 free throw attempts, but ended up missing on 15 of them, the most they've missed at the line this season.

"I thought second half we just didn’t execute offensively. Only four assists in that second half, we didn’t have the ball movement and missed a ton of free throws. First half was a good half for us and the second half was a reverse of that." -Head coach Nate McMillan

"If we’re the team that we think we are, these are the kind of games we’ve got to win. I think we’re more than capable of winning games like this, so we’ve just got to do it." -Myles Turner

"I was talking about being rusty and as the game kept going, I just kept getting better, getting to the line a lot too. The game started slowing down for me, but my focus was really defensively, just by the way we’ve been playing and the way we were playing, so I felt like I had to —I don’t think I had a blocked shot today, but just being all over the place helping my teammates." -76ers center Joel Embiid

The Pacers finished the game shooting 37.3 percent from the field, their second-worst shooting performance of the season.

The Pacers return home to host their old rivals, the New York Knicks, at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Tuesday, March 12 at 7:00 PM ET. Find Tickets »