Instant Rewind
Back in action at Bankers Life Fieldhouse for the first time in nine months, the Pacers led by up to 17 points but eventually fell to the Philadelphia 76ers Friday night in their last preseason game, 113-107.
Three Pacers starters added up 20 points despite sitting out in the entire fourth quarter. Domantas Sabonis led the way with 26 points on 10-for-16 shooting and 11 rebounds, while Malcolm Brogdon added 21 points, six rebounds, and four assists.
Victor Oladipo All-Star’s best showing was two seasons of the preseason, scoring 20 points, two rebounds, two assists, and two steals in 20 minutes. Oladipo went 7-for-14 from the field and 4-for-9 from a 3-point field.
Philadelphia jumped out to an early 11-6 lead behind three buckets from Dwight Howard, but Indiana responded with an 11-0 run to concede ahead.
Oladipo dominated Indiana’s offensive accusation in the first quarter, scoring 10 points in the first eight minutes with a pair of 3-point tokens and a couple of layups in motion.
Both teams traded the lead six times in the opening frame. Indiana had two points after last-minute rookie rug Cassius Stanley, but a Tony Bradley layup on the other end tied him 28-28 after the one.
The 76ers opened their second season with a 12-4 run. Nate Bjorkgren then went under his starting five back in and ran out of a 16-2 run. Sabonis scored eight points over that range and the Blue & Gold Philadelphia maintained just one field goal over a 5:26 race.
Indiana led by as many as nine points before halftime and took a 59-51 lead into the break.
Oladipo picked up where he left off in the third quarter, drilling a 3-point on the Pacers ’opening possession and then fishing out two assists as the Pacers opened the half with an 11-2 run.
That led Blue & Gold by 17 points, but the 76ers went away at that margin over the rest of the third quarter. Eight unanswered points gave the visitors a late 81-80 response in the frame. Brogdon’s 3-pointer with 10.1 seconds left put Indiana back in front of him, but Mike Scott’s three kicked in at the kite at the other end to give Philadelphia an 84-83 lead into the fourth. season.
Just as he had done in their previous two preseason games in Cleveland, Bjorkgren turned to his bench to close out the game.
The Sixers opened the fourth quarter with a 12-3 run to extend the lead to 10 points. Indiana reserves slowly made their way back, cutting the deficit to four on Kelan Martin’s position with just over three minutes to play and again after Stanley’s three-point play with 1:45 on leave.
But that was the closest thing Indiana could get. The Isaiah Joe jersey with 1:07 left pushed the lead back to six and rookie Tyrese Maxey took a jumper step back with 39 seconds to play the proverbial dagger.
Stanley had 12 points on a 5-of-11 shooting and seven rebounds off the bench in the loss.
Reserve guard Shake Milton dominated Philadelphia with 15 points and five assists Friday. Howard scored 14 points in 16 minutes on a 7-of-7 shooting, while Furkan Korkmaz scored 14 high as well.
The Pacers will now turn their focus to next week’s season opener. Indiana will host the New York Knicks at The Fieldhouse Wednesday night to end the 2020-21 campaign.