By Jerry Wein
Justin Holiday came off the bench to score a season-high 27 points in the Indiana Pacers’ 118-113 victory over the Sixers.
Sixers center center Joel Embiid missed his fourth consecutive game after testing positive for COVID-19 on Monday. The 76ers have lost all four games.
Holiday was 9 of 11 from the field. Malcolm Brogdon had a triple-double with 13 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. Myles Turner added 20 points, and Domantas Sabonis had 18 points and 12 rebounds.
Tobias Harris led the 76ers with a season-high 32 points on 10-of-22 shooting and 11 rebounds. Tyrese Maxey added 24 points. Andre Drummond contributed 11 points and a team-high 16 rebounds.
Philadelphia cut it to 107-102 with 2:57 on Maxey’s basket. The Pacers pushed the lead to 115-104 with three big baskets by T.J. McConnell.
The Pacers shot 67.4% to take a 70-60 halftime lead. Indiana used a 15-0 spurt to push a 28-25 lead to 43-25. Indiana led by 20 points in the first half.Harris said his 76ers needed to play better defense in the first half.
“They made tough shots,” Harris said. “But we knew who their shooters were and we didn’t execute. Holiday goes out there and starts rolling. We gave him a lot of good looks. I just thought there were too many possessions where we let them get too comfortable there. To rally from that with everything else going on, it was tough for us.”
The 76ers were able to hold a 46-37. For the game, Indiana shot 57% while Philadelphia shot 43%.
