Game 33 : Indiana Pacers (15-17) @ Philadelphia 76ers (22-12) - 8:00 PM

[ducler]

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[boomershadow]

Oh boy

[Pacers Forever]

I had tv service issues luckily I guess. Unfortunately I got the game on at start of 4th quarter and I was like OH MY Hadn't checked score on phone.

[Pacers Forever]

Only seeing 4th quarter and the box score the first thing that I noticed is Sumner has 18 points on 50% shooting in 27 minutes. Sweet ! Maybe the coaches will see a need to give him more minutes and cut McConnell back some thus hopefully getting rewards from both of their play. Otherwise I can't really comment on what went wrong or who did well earlier in the contest.

[Topofthekey]

Oh wow, Doug had a tooth knocked out by Simmons. First time I saw someone's tooth literally fell out of his mouth onto the basketball court

[Wizop]

I watched a few minutes of the 2nd quarter. When we gave up three consecutive Korkmaz 3's, I went back to Netflix and Prime. Most watchable team is definitely the IU Women.

[Scoot McGroot]

I watched the 1st half and most of the 3rd before turning it to Ted Lasso instead. It seemed like our zone defense just sucks. It’s terrible. It’s repetitive (the doubles on Embiid came from the same spot every. single. time.), doesn’t appear well practiced, and doesn’t suit our strengths. We couldn’t hit a shot in the 2nd, and our offense was slow and sloppy, while we also couldn’t overcome our late rotations, and ineffective placement in zone to defend the 3 point shot (as Wizop mentioned, Korkmaz killed us). The “blitz and attack” style of defense we seem to run also puts us into terrible positions that we have bad recoveries from, and tend to foul shooters in our attempt to recover and get to them too quick. Obviously, some of this will get better with Levert, and eventually Warren, back, with shifting Justin and Doug to the bench to strengthen that, but there’s still some big question marks. McConnell’s effort and energy are great, but his absolute inability to take the 3 point shot and his dribbling into contested mid-range attempts in front of the Embiid’s of the world just hurts the overall offense.

Sumner played well, though. A few mistakes, for sure, but he started using his speed as a weapon on offense and defense. He forced some turnovers, and attacked the basket in transition well, forcing the defense to break apart. He should’ve gotten to the free throw line a couple more times, but he’s showing, both offensively and defensively, that Nate should trust him more and get him more play. He really seems to be playing exactly how Nate Bjorkgren preaches his players should play.

But overall, this game was painful to watch.