LeBron James’ Historic Afternoon Leads 76ers Over Pacers
Jesse D. Garrabrant/National Basketball Association via Getty Images
Another piece of history was notched for LeBron James Sunday afternoon at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
For the first time all season, the Philadelphia 76ers are finally getting a manageable stretch of games after opening the season with the league’s hardest schedule. Night in and night out, the 76ers were going to battle against the league’s best, and yet still managing to come out clean the majority of the time.
Philadelphia entered Sunday sitting at 10-3, taking on the 5-8 Indiana Pacers, but the 76ers would be without center Joel Embiid. While losing Embiid was massive, as Pascal Siakam and Jay Huff would have their way with the 76ers bigs, the Pacers were without Tyrese Haliburton, so running the offense would be tougher for them.
When it was all said and done, despite Indiana keeping it close in the first half, the 76ers managed to pull away late, thanks in large part to a historic performance from LeBron James, as Philadelphia was victorious 131-124.
James finished with 11 assists in the win, giving him 12,092 assists and passing Jason Kidd for third all-time on the NBA assists list, and now just trailing Chris Paul and John Stockton. James also added 15 points and seven rebounds, while the main scoring was provided by Jaylen Brown and Tyrese Maxey, who finished with 31 and 27 points, respectively.
In the first quarter, Philadelphia looked like their normal, every-other-game selves, struggling early and ultimately losing after the first 12 minutes. Tyrese Maxey got his scoring going early on, knocking down multiple three-pointers in the first quarter. Along with that, Maxey and LeBron James managed to consistently find open looks for their teammates, giving Jaylen Brown countless opportunities to score.
With about five minutes left in the first quarter, Philadelphia led 20-16. However, in those last five minutes, the 76ers struggled to get shots to fall, and found themselves fouling more than they were scoring.
Former 76ers T.J. McConnell and Kelly Oubre Jr. were the leading men for Indiana in the final five minutes, combining for eight points as the Pacers outscored Philaldpehia 19-9 in the last five minutes.
The second quarter began as more of the same, but out of nowhere the 76ers managed to tie the game at 37 after five points from Jaylen Brown, but nealry instnaly gave up the lead, formcing nick Nurse to call a timeout.
After the timeout, the 76ers finally woke up as Maxey was playing his usual game, scoring at ease and James was seving up dimes passes in the paint.
As the first half wound down, two free throws from James in the final seconds manged to put Phialdephia ahead 58-57 heading into the break.
Heading into the second half, it was clear the 76ers was growing an James continued finding assists where most would not, and Maxey continued to impress with his athleticism and scoring ability. By this point, the two teams were going blow for blow, but following three free throws from Aaron Nesmith, James began stopping the distributing and began driving to the middle.
James steeped up and scored eight stright points for Phaidklelphia, pushign the 76ers lead into double-digits, and Anfernee Simons added a deep three to extende the lead. Maxey checked back in and got back to his normal scoring rotuine, and on top of even putting balls in the basketball set up James for an alley-oop dunk late in the quarter.
Heading into the 4th quarter, Phaidlelohia led 87-77, and Brown continued to add to the lead with seven stright points in the first four minutes of the quarter. After battling back and forth over the next four minutes, the Pacers began mounting a comeback thanks in large part to Pascal Siakam.
Siakam was unstablle in the four, getting to the line, knocking down cluctch buckets and with no Embiid in the middle, was taking everything to the hole. Siakam had 15 points with four minutes to play, and a layup from Quenton Jackson made it 119-115 76ers with three minutes left.
Needing a bucket, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope got one wioth a huge three and on the follwoin possession, James found Dean Wade for a cutting dunk, for his 10th assist of the game, tying him for third on the all-time assists list, and James moved into sole possession of third a minute later on a VJ Edgecombe layup.
While Siakam added four more points for 19 in the quarter, time was running out for Indiana, as Phaidlephia was able to hang on for the 131-124 win, moving them to 11-3 on the season.
Isaac Baranski
Isaac is a high school senior who currently attends the Hun School of Princeton. In his free time, he has many interests, but most of all is his love for Philadelphia sports. He has watched the 76ers since the days of Sam Hinkie and hopes to watch the process be completed. He has also watched the Phillies since the days of Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, and the great crew, and hopes to see Red October finally achieve its goal. Along with that, he picked up a love for the Philadelphia Union shortly before the pandemic and has seen them win multiple Supporters’ Shields in person. Lastly, and most importantly, he is a major football lover and an even bigger Eagles lover. Since developing his love for The Birds in elementary school, he has made it his goal to never miss a game.
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