By: Kylan Watson
After falling to the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night, the Philadelphia 76ers faced the Indiana Pacers in their season finale. Both teams traded blows throughout this contest, but the Pacers were able to pull away thanks to a scoring explosion from Pascal Siakam. That allowed them to beat Philly 112-100.
Philly was extremely shorthanded during this game they only dressed eight players for this contest. Despite that they were able to find their offensive stroke early and often during this game. Before Indiana could even settle into the contest they were down by double digits. Jeff Dowtin Jr. picked up right where he left off on Wednesday night.
He scored 11 of his 24 points in the first quarter and created multiple high-percentage shooting opportunities for his teammates which they were able to cash in on. Dowtin Jr. is really becoming a force to be reckon with since getting these increased minutes and he may end up being a player Philly can rely on once they are back to full strength.
Despite the scoring explosion from Dowtin Jr. the Pacers were able to retake the lead mid-way through the third quarter. Pascal Siakam took this game over in that period where he dominated his matchup. He scored 27 points, and Philly really had no answers for him throughout this contest. They did not have enough big bodies to throw at him and he was able to attack the paint and really put the Sixers in a defensive bind.
Without rim protection on the court the Sixers interior defense fell apart, and they gave the Pacers multiple opportunities to put the ball in the hoop, and they made the Sixers pay for every extra opportunity they gave up.
The Sixers should really start filling their roster out with some of their G-League talent, you cannot continue to go into games down at least four players a contest. That is a recipe for disaster and continues to be their downfall in the last few games. In the next few weeks, they should be able to get some of their talent back to full health. But this team will continue to be a hard team to watch until they get some of their players back.
Philly continued to play tough throughout this game, even though they had every reason to give up without most of their talent playing in this game. They had multiple opportunities to get the momentum back in this contest. However, every time they had that opportunity, they would turn the ball over and the Pacers would get an easy bucket opportunity to extend their lead. Indiana was able to take advantage of every mistake the Sixers made in this game and that allowed them to steal this game from Philly.
The Sixers will now prepare to face the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday afternoon. The Mavericks are just as injured as Philly coming into this contest and the Sixers will need to cash in on the high-percentage shooting opportunities created off their ball movement, limit their turnovers, and force the Mavericks to take well contested shots they should be in great position to win their 23rd game of the season.
