Three reasons the Sixers won at Indiana

Playing without Joel Embiid (back tightness), the 76ers overcame a 20-point deficit late in the third period and earned a 119-110 win over the Indiana Pacers on Sunday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Here are three reasons for the victory:

Ben Simmons scored a season-high 21 points and was highly efficient, shooting 9-for-12. Entering the game, he was shooting only 64% on shots at the rim. Last season, his percentage was 71.9. Yet in this game, he was finishing. Here is a look at one of his driving layups, in which he got by Malcolm Brogdon (an excellent defender) and finished.

Simmons often goes up on the wrong foot, as he did on the above drive, but he was able to finish this time.

Among Simmons’ 12 field-goal attempts, he actually missed his first two shots, both on drives to the basket. The only other miss came on an attempted dunk when Goga Bitadze partially blocked the shot. All nine of his field goals were at the rim. Simmons made his final six field-goal attempts, all around the basket, five of which came on drives.

With his speed and ballhandling ability, Simmons can break down a defender and get to the basket, and if he can continue to finish plays, his career-low scoring average (13.3 ppg.) will improve.

The Sixers have played so little zone defense, but they went to a 2-3 near the midway point of the fourth quarter and it paid off. Trailing by 104-94 when they went to the zone, the Sixers then controlled the game down the stretch.

Making the zone work was Matisse Thybulle, who played at the top. Doc Rivers said he thought Thybulle got 11 fourth-quarter deflections. Thybulle had four steals in the quarter and played all but two seconds of the final period.

When Simmons came in and joined Thybulle, the Pacers had trouble dealing with both of them at the top of the zone. The Sixers defense also led to transition opportunities as the play below showed with Thybulle getting the steal and giving it to Simmons, who fed Furkan Korkmaz for the basket. Thybulle gets a lot of steals coming off the weak side, as he did on this play to take the ball away from Domantas Sabonis.

A zone plays to Thybulle’s strengths, as he can use his 7-foot wingspan to intercept passes.

With Embiid out, Tobias Harris became the Sixers’ go-to scorer at crunch time and really throughout the game. Harris scored a season-high 27 points. In the fourth quarter, he scored 10, shooting 4-for-5 from the field and hitting both of his free throws.

One of those fourth-quarter baskets came here when Harris drove the baseline and lofted a shot over Sabonis.

Harris has received a lot of All-Star buzz, and this game certainly will help his candidacy.