The Philadelphia 76ers matched up with a deep Indiana Pacers team on Wednesday night. After a back and forth game, the Sixers came out on top and got their first road victory of the season.
The Philadelphia 76ers started the game off really hot. There was a five-minute stretch where they led the Pacers 19-4. While this is great within itself, it was great to see the new starting five (featuring Markelle Fultz) achieve a great start to the game.
After the great start, Victor Oladipo reminded all of us why he was named an all-star last season, scoring in a massive flurry. Oladipo finished the quarter with 15 points and helped the Pacers tie up the game at halftime.
In recent memory, we’ve seen the Sixers collapse after halftime. Usually what happens is the opposite team goes on a run that either ties or takes the lead against the Sixers.
Thankfully, this game was an exception. The game went back and forth, but by the end of the third quarter the Sixers actually built up a new lead and lead the Pacers 78-71 going into the fourth quarter.
The fourth quarter went well for the Sixers, and they built onto of their new lead, even entering double digits.
Luckily, the team held on and won the game by doing many things effectively on both sides of the ball. The Sixers limited Oladipo in the fourth by playing great off-ball defense on him, which lead him to not even receiving the ball at times. Dario Saric also hit some of the clutch threes we know him for.
This is arguably the biggest Sixers victory of the season. There were a lot of promising sights to see, and a lot to unpack. Lets check out some of the players who helped the Sixers achieve have a much needed road win.
THE HOMIE IS BACK! It feels great to be positive when it comes to Dario Saric. Tonight was the first game in which Saric looked like the player he actually is. All around it was a great game to see from him. Saric was massive on offense pouring in a efficient 18 points, and didn’t look like a disaster on defense.
Dario Saric had a great play in the fourth where he contested a OIadipo step-back three that would’ve put Indiana in very close range of the Sixers. This was a very important game for Dario Saric, and hopefully he can build on this and be the consistent player that Philly fans know he is.
This was quietly a very great game for Robert Covington. He actually started off this game bad for the most part and even went scoreless in the first half. This is something that should be paid attention to more, as in the past Robert Covington is very streaky and will let the beginning of a game determine how good he preforms.
He had an off first half, but changed the tone and became very important to this game in the second half. Thankfully, he became engaged and helped play his elite defense on the likes of Victor Oladipo. Covington even had a great and-one reverse lay up that was off the dribble. This was awesome to see considering that cutting off the dribble is something Robert Covington worked on extensively over the offseason.
Ben Simmons had a very quiet near triple-double. He was very aggressive early on, and helped the Sixers score their early lead and helped initiate the offense. Simmons was also effective on the glass, grabbing 10 rebounds for a double-double.
When it came to clutch time, Simmons didn’t do much scoring, but he helped assist the dagger — an open court pass to Robert Covington who went in for a great dunk. The best thing for Simmons tonight is definitely that assist to turnover ratio of 8-1. Ben Simmons has been weirdly inconsistent this season. Seeing him have three good games in a row is promising to see going forward.
The Pacers actually played Joel Embiid well on defense, and limited him drastically at times. The fact that Joel Embiid put up 20 and 10 with solid defense being played on him says a lot about Embiid. Indiana threw Domantas Sabonis and Myles Turner at him, and for the most part Embiid preformed well. Joel Embiid had the biggest impact on offense tonight, as the team went through some spurts where they struggled to consistently score the ball. Embiid stepped up in that regard, and helped the team get a very important victory.
It almost seems like the Sixers can’t go an entire nationally broadcasted game without the announcers mentioning the fact that they “miss” Marco Belinelli and Ersan Ilyasova. While some fans might, everyone can confidently say that Landry Shamet has been amazing for a rookie who was a late first-round pick.
Shamet has stepped into the “void” left by Belinelli and has fit into the Sixers offense seamlessly. He has taken notes from J.J. Redick on off-ball cutting, and it really shows in games. Landry Shamet was a big offense spark off the bench and shot the ball very well from everywhere. You can’t ask much more from a rookie than putting up 50/50/100 numbers from the floor. Shamet continues to impress.
The Sixers can take a lot from tonight’s victory and hopefully build on it. The Indiana Pacers are a very underrated team and are incredibly deep. It’s a quality first road victory for the Sixers, and a look at a potential playoffs matchup between the two clubs.
The Philadelphia 76ers will be back at home on Friday to take on Kemba Walker and the Charolette Hornets, and will debut the brand new city uniforms.
