March 7, 2023
Questionable Calls and Missed Opportunities: A Breakdown of Pacers vs 76ers on the Final Word Pacers Podcast
In this episode of The Final Word, Rahj and his dad discussed the Pacers’ thrilling, close game against the 76ers, during which the Pacers ultimately lost 143 to 147. Rahj’s dad pointed out that the Pacers made a few mistakes which caught up to them, particularly because of the 76ers’ frequent trips to the free throw line and James Harden’s effectiveness as a point guard. Tyrese, when asked what the major factor in the game was, credited James Harden and the three centers who did a decent job against him. At the end of the conversation, Rahj reminded viewers to like, share, and subscribe to The Final Word and to hit the bell icon if they were watching on YouTube.
This conversation details a recent game between the Pacers and the 76ers. The two sides were evenly matched, and the Pacers had good defensive pressure, but occasionally they were unable to grab the ball on the loose. Joel and Myles haven't played against each other for the past two years, but Joel has always had no issues with Miles Turner. Joy is an All-Star and some would even consider him a superstar, as he had his 11th 40-point game of the year. It is possible that the referees helped him out on that, as he is respected for what he does, and is a physical monster that is hard to deal with. In the end, when Miles Turner is on, everyone clicks and contributes, and that is what made the game so high-scoring.
The conversation is about how the Pacers play up and down to the competition they are playing against lately. They are not an overpowering team, but they will beat people due to their team play. They do not have any overpowering players, such as Tyrese, who knows how to position himself to get passes off and shots off. Buddy Hustles plays hard and can be a great asset when he is hitting shots, getting to the basket, and getting rebounds. The Pacers are a team and will win when they play the game the way it's supposed to be played, without being able to physically overpower anyone.
Welcome to the Final Word Pacers Podcast, where we dive deep into everything Pacers basketball. In this episode, we're breaking down the high-scoring thriller between the Pacers and the Philadelphia 76ers, which unfortunately ended in a loss for Indiana.
Joel Embiid was on fire, scoring his 11th 40-point game of the year, but did the referees show favoritism towards him? And was Myles Turner's sixth foul really warranted? We discuss the questionable calls and what impact they had on the game.
Despite the loss, the Pacers put up a good fight, but what could they have done differently to come out on top? We analyze their performance and look at the missed opportunities that could have changed the outcome.
We also can't forget about the controversial technical foul call on the Pacers bench! We weigh in on the decision and whether it was justified.
Join us for this in-depth analysis of the Pacers' latest game, only on the Final Word Pacers Podcast.
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Transcript
0:00:01
Rahj
Welcome back to another episode of The Final Word, the number one Pacers podcast on the web. I'm your host Raj and with me we have my dad again as your cohost. We have a great show lined up for you guys today but before we get to that, please make sure you like share and subscribe to The Final Word. But most importantly, hit that bell icon if you're watching on YouTube so you'll never miss a show. Plus it will really help the production of the show.
0:00:30
Rahj
So dad, the Pacers lost in a thriller 143 to 147. What do you think about that game?
0:00:43
Mr Reed
Well, you have to say that it was an exciting game. It was close throughout, had a number of different exchanges as far as who was leading in the game and it was just a matter of who was going to be able to at the end, make the fewest mistakes. And I think a few mistakes made by the Pacers did happen to catch up to them. Of course you do realize that 70 sixers. Man, they've made a lot of trips to the free throw line and I tell you indeed, he didn't miss free throws.
0:01:24
Rahj
No, he didn't miss any free throws to think of it.
0:01:29
Mr Reed
No he didn't.
0:01:30
Rahj
That's really irritating to be quite honest.
0:01:34
Mr Reed
Because you know what Tyrese was asked what was the major factor in the game, what was it that you guys couldn't control? And his answer was you got to give him props. Yeah, you think about it, james Harden is the point guard and he's actually being more of a point guard, although he's a scorer. But the bottom line is indeed is what makes everything click. Yeah, we had three centers that did a decent job against him.
0:02:25
Mr Reed
I don't know anybody else in the NBA they can stop him. Not even Janice can't stop him. But the bottom line is when he's on, everybody's clicking. And that was another key that the whole team, everybody contributed on both teams as a matter of fact.
0:02:47
Rahj
Right.
0:02:48
Mr Reed
And so that's why we have such a high scoring game. We had, I think, some good defensive pressure by the Pacers now but once again they have good pressure but occasionally it just has always been and there's those loose balls. The ball gets loose and they just can't seem to get their hands on it.
0:03:13
Rahj
Right.
0:03:14
Mr Reed
They seem to get it locked down.
0:03:17
Rahj
Yeah, they get the butter fingers or make a bad turnover. It's basically going to happen. I mean it's a stressful, stressful game. You know, people are looking at him, they're playing against the 76. Ers, Miles Turner definitely always has pressure on him when he plays. Joy and Bead, apparently they haven't played in the last two years against each other. So this is the first time in the last two years.
0:03:42
Rahj
But Joy and Bead has made it known that he has no problem with Miles Turner before in the past. So I'm sure he wanted to kind of change the narrative on him with that. But speaking of Joy lmb yes, he is definitely an all star. Some would consider him a superstar. But even though he had his 11th 40 point game of the year, would you say their refs possibly helped him out on that?
0:04:12
Mr Reed
Well, I know a lot of people would say that, depending on who's a fan you are. You might not think so, but I think he just gets so much respect for what he does. And like I say, physically, he's just a monster. It's hard for people to deal with him and they're going to have to follow him. They're going to have to put bodies on him to try and stop him, to slow him down. And once again, he has a good touch, too, for a big guy.
0:04:48
Rahj
Yes, he has extremely good touch for a big guy. And you say they're going to have to found him, but does that really even matter? Because he just goes to the free throw line and knocks them down. So it's like that's so irritating. It's like shack back in the day. You stop shack, you put him up the free throw line, he's 60% chance he hits or something like that. With this guy, it's like eight percentage.
0:05:15
Mr Reed
Wasn't even that high. Not Shack.
0:05:20
Rahj
I think it was at least 60. I don't know, maybe it wasn't that good.
0:05:23
Mr Reed
Maybe Jackson was weak. But anyway but the thing about him be if you don't file him, he's going to score anyway. You're probably better off putting him at the free throw line.
0:05:40
Rahj
Yeah. Make him earn it, I guess. But the problem with making him earning it is hurts us as well.
0:05:46
Mr Reed
Well, the problem is he keeps earning it.
0:05:52
Rahj
Yeah, he does keep earning it. Goodness. It's so irritating that he's that good. I guess I would be upset if he was on our team.
0:06:02
Mr Reed
And then again, James Harden, he once again is a point guard. He knows how to get to the free throw line. He sets people up. He sets them up to Fowley. He knows when they put the hand in the wrong place. Okay, it's time to get the whistle. So he's going to go to the line. If you don't play him tight enough, he'll raise up and hit threes on you. So we're talking about two real weapons. Sort of keep everything else tuned and in line.
0:06:45
Rahj
Yeah, definitely. That's for sure. But the Pacers, they actually did a good job. Now I'm starting to wonder, do the Pacers would you say the Pacers play up and down to the competition they're playing against as of lately? Because that's what appears to me.
0:07:03
Mr Reed
Well, I'd say this. The one thing about the Pacers is they will beat people because of team play. They're not an overpowering. They don't have any overpowering players. I mean, Tyrese is not an overpowering player. He just understands the game and knows how to position things where he can get passes off to people and he can get a shot off. But as you look at the Pacers, just like you look at Buddy, buddy Hustles he plays hard but there's times when he can't get his shot going.
0:07:51
Mr Reed
If he can't get his shot going, once again he's got to get in a position to get a shot off. Now he doesn't force his shots, which is a good thing but that means then there's threes that you don't get and when he's hitting those threes it sort of opens things up for other players, I think beset when they brought him in about the last, what, three games.
0:08:28
Rahj
Right?
0:08:28
Mr Reed
He's really, he's really been making a big difference because he's hitting those shots, those, those threes when he's opened he's getting to the basket, getting rebounds. Yeah, he'll get to the basket every now and then and get a block in there too. Once again, the Pacers are a team and they'll win because of actually playing the game the way it's supposed to be played. They're not to where they can physically overpower anyone.
0:09:01
Rahj
Yeah, they can't physically overpower anybody, unfortunately, which I would like to see that happen because it seems like if we win and you've noticed this obviously that if we win it's because we barely won. We just edged out the team. And one of the big reasons for that is Tyrese Halburton is actually top five in clutch players in the league. He's a top five clutch player in the league. So that makes a big kind of obvious when we win it's because he's being clutch. He's doing either making a really nice pass or he's knocking down a shot and he's getting knocked down when the time is needed for it.
0:09:46
Rahj
Yeah, that definitely makes a big difference which I've talked about this before. I feel like that I know he's not going to be a league MVP but I feel like they should have like a second category, like a Junior MVP or something like that. I don't know. Junior MVP. I think Tyrese would definitely win that if that was a thing.
0:10:09
Mr Reed
Well, yeah, I think he would too. But as good as he plays, as hard as he works at the game I don't think he needs to be a junior or anything. In the eyes of people that really understand the game. He's there already.
0:10:30
Rahj
Yeah, I think he's honestly the only reason I say junior is because he's the first time All Star and you kind of have to earn your way up to get that kind of status of people even recognizing you of being an MVP type league MVP player. So they're not going to give it to him just because he's had a really good year with the Pacers and he's very important to the Pacers as far as being clutch. But it's just one of those things just something I thought about.
0:10:59
Rahj
Now, I do have to ask you this, so we're just talking about embed. Obviously, near the end of the game, there was a controversial call between Joel and Bead and Miles Turner. Whether Miles Turner actually fouled him or not, or whether Joy and Bead was actually out of bounds, I don't really think Miles found him. That's me. I mean, I can understand why they could possibly call that.
0:11:24
Mr Reed
Well, I don't think Miles fouled him either. I think he was out of bounds.
0:11:30
Rahj
Yeah, he was out of bounds. And it's really frustrating because with all the replays they can do, and it just seems like when you see plays like that, that they're trying to help the other team win. They're trying to have favoritism towards Joe OMB because he's a superstar, all star, whatever you want to call him. 70 sixers are a bigger brand of the team than the Pacers. Joel and Beat is more sellable as far as marketing on first take and undisputed and whatnot, that makes a better headline than the Pacers do.
0:12:13
Rahj
So it just seems like I could be wrong that they just kind of promote those guys and kind of either turn the other just give them the call even though they don't really earn the call themselves. Especially there was another one of Miles. I think it was maybe his fifth foul. I think it was his fifth when he had his hand straight up at the basket. Joel and bee. You know what I'm talking about?
0:12:39
Mr Reed
Yeah.
0:12:40
Rahj
And Miles was like, come on. I was like, what could I possibly done more? He was completely vertical. He wasn't off of his feet. He was pretty much you see what I'm saying?
0:12:52
Mr Reed
Yeah, I see what you're saying. The thing is, the game moves at such a pace that there's times that officials are actually out of position, and so they can't really make a good call. Or they'll see and they read and they'll go, and they they react off of the actions of the player.
0:13:17
Rahj
That's bad. If you can't make a good call, don't make the call. That's what I think. Let them play.
0:13:26
Mr Reed
But you know what? There are times when you know what you think you see, but you don't necessarily know what you see because what you think you see, you didn't see it.
0:13:41
Rahj
Yeah.
0:13:41
Mr Reed
So there's times when officials actually make calls because based on perceived the perception of what's taking place, that's going that's going to happen, and because of that, those calls will be made. I think also when you have the challenge, then why don't we just let the guys up in the booths be the official people? Because they got tapes, they got camera angles, and so they could sit there, and they can go, and they can look at all of that and make the judgment.
0:14:25
Mr Reed
The other thing is, you don't want to put an official on a spot where basically you got your fans questioning everything that officials do. That doesn't make for good atmosphere either. But there's times when the fans are just extremely hot, extremely excited, and officials are just making the wrong calls.
0:14:54
Rahj
Yeah, I think they just do that just to be hard headed sometimes. Like, we don't care what you fans think. This is what the call is, deal with it. But I just think in certain circumstances like that, I just feel like there should be somebody who kind of overrides. But like, now let's just look at this a little bit more, especially with the games really close. The game is not super close. Okay, whatever.
0:15:16
Rahj
But if the game is this close, I just feel like they should just be like, okay, let's just take another close look. We've got all these different camera angles and replays and can slow it down and really pay attention. Just like they did with the buzzer beater that Benedict Matheran had. He had that Buzzer Beater floater, which I don't understand exactly why they took that much time to figure out if he got the ball off before and then also at the same time, it.
0:15:47
Mr Reed
Was so obvious he got rid of the ball in time.
0:15:51
Rahj
Yeah, and then I guess they were trying to make sure and check and see if the foul occurred at a certain point in time before. I don't know. It didn't make any sense. It was looking like they were trying to figure out a way to take these points away. I mean, doesn't it kind of seem like this sometimes? Like they're trying to figure out a way to make the Pacers lose so the Sixers can win? That's just what it kind of seemed like to me. I don't know.
0:16:22
Mr Reed
Well, you hate to think that, but I guess now when you can gamble on all the games that are on, I don't know what kind of money is out there, what's floating around, but maybe you think maybe that's what's influencing some of the calls.
0:16:40
Rahj
You have to be realistic and honest about it. And if you said it didn't influence the calls, that would just be a little naive, I believe. I think it does influence the calls in some kind of way. So what you're going to do? I don't know. The game is a little rigged. MB has become a little bit more like the WWF. Not exactly 100% authentic, even if it is on the player side. But what you're going to do?
0:17:15
Rahj
But, yeah, the Pacers did have a chance to win this one. They did have a chance, but they didn't do I mean, what do you think they could have possibly done better to actually get the win on this?
0:17:28
Mr Reed
Well, truth of the matter is you have to look at the turnovers they made because every turnover is a basket you don't have an opportunity to make. I think, once again, some of the turnovers they make? I don't know. Sometimes I sort of look at them and I think, now, these guys are NBA players. They're professionals, so some of the dumb passes they make, they shouldn't make, and they should know better.
0:18:01
Rahj
Yeah.
0:18:04
Mr Reed
It begins to be questionable. Where is your head? Are you really focused on what's taking place here? Because I think sometimes the players themselves, they sort of drift off at the Lila Land.
0:18:21
Rahj
Yeah, I believe so as well. And they get you scratching your head sometimes because I don't really quite understand it either. Some of the passes that they make, it's like that's a pass that you wouldn't expect a high school kid to make. And they try to attempt it, but what you're going to do?
0:18:40
Mr Reed
And I'd say, that's why you're sitting on the bench now. We need somebody knows how to play the way it's supposed to be done.
0:18:48
Rahj
Exactly. I do want to ask you your thoughts, because we haven't really talked about this too much about Jordan Warrant. What do you think about him? How do you think he affects our team? I personally like what he's been doing. He adds a little size to our lineup. Obviously, he can get to the basket, he can stretch the floor. What do you think about him?
0:19:15
Mr Reed
He is a definite positive. He's had a really positive influence on the team, and he hadn't been around that long.
0:19:27
Rahj
Right.
0:19:27
Mr Reed
He's still getting adjusted and working at reaching and getting into his comfort zone. But I think the longer he plays, the more his teammates get comfortable with them. I think he's an aggressive person. He plays defense, he's aggressive going to the basket, going for rebounds. He's a hustle person going after loose balls. He's just a positive, something positive that they have.
0:20:04
Rahj
Yeah, definitely. So I'm glad we're able to pick him up because I guess he wasn't doing much on Milwaukee's bench. So it's good for us. It's good for Milwaukee. I'm glad he's been able to play with us. Also, I wanted to mention Chris Dortte. His play has definitely improved recently, so it's good to see that happen. What were you going to say?
0:20:30
Mr Reed
Yeah, I think Chris Dortte, he's starting to get or to get in a comfort zone where he feels like he feels like he belongs rather than he's battling, trying to survive.
0:20:44
Rahj
Yeah, that's definitely what it looked like on the look on his face, because of how well certain people on our team and obviously our team isn't that great. We have a lot of positives. But he could see that the other players around him, it seemed like they were excelling some new guys to the team. And it was looking like he was kind of edging him out, possibly because of the play of Matheran and Nimhard and whatnot, and then just healed coming in this year and just the minutes not being possibly available for him.
0:21:20
Rahj
So it did look like he had a look of frustration on his face sometimes when his shot just wasn't falling and things weren't happening for him. But he definitely does have a look of more confidence in his face right now and how he's playing. He does play a lot more confident as of recently. Hopefully that continues for him, whether he stays with us or not. But, yeah, he's been doing much better. So now, I do have to ask you this. So what about that technical foul on the Pacers bench? What's all that about?
0:22:02
Rahj
Did you catch that?
0:22:05
Mr Reed
I really didn't catch it.
0:22:07
Rahj
You didn't catch the technical foul on the Pacer's bench?
0:22:10
Mr Reed
Was it on the bench or was it on the coast?
0:22:13
Rahj
No, it was on the Pacers bench.
0:22:17
Mr Reed
Well, I don't know.
0:22:22
Rahj
Have you ever seen a bench get called for a technical file before?
0:22:28
Mr Reed
Well, I say yes, you can call a technical foul for a bench because actually, they have boundaries that they have to stay within during the course of the game. And if you get out of that zone, that boundary, you can be called for technical. And that's not just on the players. That's also for the coach. Sometimes the coach just gets carried away and the assistants have to try to keep him in line. The thing about the Pacers bench is those guys are like cheerleaders.
0:23:17
Mr Reed
I hope you're still with me.
0:23:19
Rahj
Yeah, I'm here.
0:23:20
Mr Reed
Okay. And because they're so aggressive, and when I say aggressive, even, that cheering each other on. And then, once again, there will be times when they'll see that the officials have made the wrong calls. And I think, just like us, it sort of infuriates them. And sometimes you just can't keep it back. You just have to let it go. Who knows who's going to let it go? When you look at a whole bench, you get on the pump anywhere.
0:24:03
Rahj
Yeah, that was quite interesting. But, yeah, it was a good game, dad. It was a good game. I appreciate you doing this podcast again with me. So, guys, thank you for listening to another episode of The Final Word, your number one pastors podcast on the web. And, dad, what's your final word?
0:24:24
Mr Reed
Final word is faith.
0:24:28
Rahj
Faith.
0:24:30
Mr Reed
Faith. Got to have faith in our pastors.
0:24:33
Rahj
Yeah. Got to have faith. And my final word will be turnovers. Stop the turnovers. Stop the turnovers.
0:24:51
Mr Reed
Or tonight was the final turnover.
0:24:54
Rahj
The final turnover. Yeah, hopefully. All right, guys. Will you guys take it easy? We'll catch you later in the next this episode. Take it easy. Bye.
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