Sixers Overcome Terrible Second Quarter to Dispatch Pacers

The Sixers survived an ugly offensive night against the lowly Indiana Pacers to pull out a win, ending a string of woeful results at home.

Here's what happened.

An offensive second quarter

You need only two plays to sum up the entire second quarter for Philadelphia. Joel Embiid caught a ball at the elbow and saw Kelly Oubre Jr. cutting the baseline for a score at the rim. Embiid obliged and hit Oubre with a beautiful pass, only for Oubre to botch the layup. Dominick Barlow then followed Oubre's miss, only to under-rim the putback attempt.

The other play was the final possession before halftime. The Sixers had 20 seconds on the clock to get a good shot and trim the deficit to one possession heading into the break.

What did they get?

VJ Edgecombe dribbling aimlessly on the left wing in isolation before settling on a stepback three at the buzzer, barely grazing rim.

You might feel compelled to put Nick Nurse at the root of such a hideous quarter. With Paul George ruled out a few hours before the game, he opened the second quarter with both Tyrese Maxey and Embiid on the bench.

The lineup he deployed put the offensive creation squarely on Edgecombe and Quentin Grimes. I wouldn't be prepared to enlist Edgecombe for on-ball duties at this stage of his career, not when there's a canyon between him and the next best equipped offensive player. So Nurse essentially rolled the dice on Grimes.

The thing is, he didn't have to do that. Not with Embiid and Maxey available. He could've easily staggered the two tentpoles, bypassing that problem altogether.

Instead, he rolled the dice on a lineup that very quickly ran out of offensive juice. Edgecombe had a couple good passing reads, feeding Grimes for a hard drive and layup and leaving a lob for Adem Bona for a dunk. But he had very little to offer once the Pacers started guarding him with more complex schemes.

To make matters worse, Grimes was actively a negative to that lineup. He used up back-to-back possessions on unnecessary threes that didn't go down. I would give Grimes far less grief over being a wildly up-and-down shooter if his shot selection ad decision-making otherwise were consistently good. But they're not.

He's the sixth man on this team. Sixth men are inherently rocky with their production. But the variance in his play swings so wildly that you don't know when he's going to tank the lineup by himself or take over a stretch of the game. The Sixers would be better off with lower-ceiling outcomes for Grimes as long as he was consistent than they are playing the slots every time he checks in.

The disastrous second quarter wasn't all on Grimes. There were plenty of minutes in which Maxey and Embiid were on the court in that quarter. But it felt like that lineup to begin the second quarter zapped the team of its energy and approach. Even when Maxey and Embiid came back in, there was no rhythm. Eventually, the Sixers blinked first and handed control of the game over to Indiana.

Embiid's approach

I usually have no problems with him using his mid-range game, but his approach to this game left a ton of meat on the bone. He was matched up with Jay Huff and Tony Bradley for long portions of this game. He proved in the third quarter that he could take either to the weight room if he wanted to. Yet, Embiid settled for a steady diet of mid-range jumpers outside the block.

With the backdrop of this game being that the offense was completely disheveled for much of the 48 minutes, Embiid's approach was particularly unsatisfying. This is not an ask to dominate the game to the tune of 40 points. This is an ask to assert your force because of what doing so makes defenses do. The more Embiid applies his physicality, the more the defense is going to buckle around the interior and create openings for everyone else.

In a game where the Sxers struggled to manufacture open looks along the perimeter, Embiid could've solved much of that by himself.

Jabari Walker, hustle enthusiast

He had just five points and six rebounds, but Walker continues to play an incredibly useful brand of basketball. The battling for sneaky scores at the rim wasn't the story of his game. It was the flying into the picture for rebounds when the more traditional big wasn't available to pull down the miss. It was the repeated sneaking in from the rear to tip the ball away, sparking transition opportunities. If he could shoot at all, he'd have a case for the starting power forward spot, let alone a spot in the regular rotation. Give him all the minutes.

Spare thoughts

Best offensive game for Oubre since his return. He attacked Johnny Furphy on three straight possessions to open the game and had a warm hand for the remainder of the night. You know he's feeling it when he's getting to that short jumper in the paint with regularity.

Adem Bona registered a steal and had an open alley to the rim for a dunk, but then he remembered that he had to dribble and immediately lost control of the ball. He deprived himself of a highlight and the fans of a thunderous dunk. But he certainly gave Shaq some ammunition for Shaqtin' A Fool, if that's still a thing.

Edgecombe caught a body. Current Sixer on former Sixer crime. We'll see how that arm feels tomorrow:

THE ROOK. 👋 pic.twitter.com/c9mzMbFpMI
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) January 20, 2026

Eight steals for Maxey. At least five thefts in back-to-back games. The first time he was named an All-Star, he went out and scored a career-high 51 points in Utah against the Jazz that night. The second time he was named an All-Star, he recorded a new career high in steals. He might like the All-Star nods.

Before the game, Nurse explained that he wanted all hands on deck for the back-to-back and that was why the team recalled Jared McCain from the G League on Monday. McCain went on to play 47 seconds in this game. Feels like a wasted opportunity to get him minutes with the Blue Coats, who had a game today.