The Pacers are coming off a statement win. The beauty of American sports is one of two things will happen today: either the "momentum will carry over" or "they'll suffer a let down." If it's going to be the former, the team will need to every bit of grit it showed against Milwaukee – and probably a couple granules more.

Philadelphia is red hot. Arguably redder and hotter than any team in the league. After losing the season opener by a point to the Bucks, the 76ers have won seven straight games. They possess the league's third best offense and sixth best defense. Having had the fatty lipoma that is James Harden excised, Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey are playing some of the best basketball of their careers.

The first key to the game will be keeping Philly off of the free throw line. The Sixers have the highest free throw rate in the league (the ratio of made free throws to field goal attempts). As you could have guessed, the Pacers defense ranks second worst in the same statistic. Embiid, Maxey, and Tobias Harris are all excellent at getting to the line so the Pacers will have to be extra conscious of walling them off without being handsy.

Speaking of walling off, Philly loves to pound the ball inside – something the Pacers have been happy to allow this year.

Courtesy of Cleaning the Glass

So far our bigs have done a decent job at making those in-close shots difficult, even if the raw totals are ugly (largely a product of volume). The Pacers will need Myles Turner, Jalen Smith, and likely IJax to be at their best tonight – not only protecting the rim...

... but preventing second chance opportunities. Finishing possessions has been a weak spot but the Pacers were solid against Milwaukee, something they'll need to be again if we want another upset victory.

As far as the Pacers' offense, it really comes down to shotmaking. The Pacers have been excellent in both the half-court and transition this season. Still, other than Boston, Philly will be the best defense we've faced by a significant margin. Therefore, finding easy buckets will be critical.

One way we can do that is to crash the offensive glass. Mathurin has been elite at creating second opportunities this season. So far he's rebounding 7% of the team's misses, putting him in the 98th percentile for wings. Jalen Smith has also excelled in the area, grabbing almost 12%, good for the 83rd percentile among bigs.

The other tried and true way to get easy looks is to speed the game up. The Sixers want to play a much more deliberate style, so if the Pacers can dictate the pace of play it should prove to their advantage.

Being the first game of a double header in Philly, it will be interesting to see what adjustments Rick Carlisle and Nick Nurse make not only over the course of the game, but over the course series.

How to Watch

Tipoff is at 6:00 PM ET.

TV: Bally Sports Indiana, NBA League Pass

Radio: 93.5/107.5 The Fan

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