Sixers 98-Pacers 101: Myles Turner causes problems and Sixers are still struggling with turnovers and fouls

Brett Brown said before the game that playing the Pacers would give a better idea of where the Sixers measure up compared to East's elite. Turns out that the Sixers will have to do a better job of planning if they're going to face another athletic big who can shoot from the perimeter. Myles Turner caused a whole litany of problems for the Sixers Tuesday night. Turner finished the night with 25 points on 9-of-12 shooting and many of those points were on and over Joel Embiid.

When Turner was on the bench, the Sixers found themselves in catch-up mode, closing the gap created when Turner was going off. But even then, the Sixers were caught off guard by the other weapons the Pacers had (i.e. Thaddeus Young). If this is a preview of what playoff basketball could look like for the Sixers, then they have a lot of work to do. There can't be as many glaring lapses in defensive rotations when a guy like Turner takes Embiid out to the perimeter. If Victor Oladipo had been more efficient, this would have been a blowout for the Pacers. Embiid started to get more aggressive in the final minutes, but it was too little too late.

The problems that plagued the Sixers at the beginning of the season are the same problems that the Sixers are still facing with just a little over a month left before the postseason begins. Turnovers and fouls.

The Sixers are still giving up way too many points off of miscues, lazy passes, loss of control, and bad passes. They turned the ball over 21 times, which the Pacers converted into 29 points, while Indiana only had 10 turnovers. The Sixers went into the night averaging the third-most fouls per game of any team in the league at 22.3. They surpassed that mark with 1:29 left in the game when Embiid committed the team's 23rd foul of the night. The Sixers closed out the night with 25 fouls. The Pacers went 20-of-25 from the free throw line.