Sixers vs. Pacers takeaways: Tyrese Maxey struggles vs. Indiana’s physicality, Philly’s bewildering fourth quarter

The 76ers need to clean up some things.

DeAnthony Melton had what the Sixers hope is a breakout game. And the Indiana Pacers got physical with Tyrese Maxey.

Those three things stood out in Indiana’s 132-126 victory Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center.

Here are the takeaways:

The Sixers were disorganized.

For the most part, they played well during their eight-game winning streak.

“But tonight, obviously, we had a few travel calls,” said Joel Embiid following last night’s game. “Then we were just really kind of disorganized. [There were] times when we’re we were just stuck. We weren’t getting ourselves open. So we just got to do a better job.”

The Sixers committed 16 turnovers. They also only had five offensive rebounds two nights after grabbing 23 boards against the Pacers. They trailed 12-6, in total rebounds in the fourth quarter. And down 117-116 with 4 minutes, 3 seconds left, the Sixers missed five of their next six shots and committed a costly turnover. That enabled the Pacers to build a nine-point lead with 1:03 remaining.

Tobias Harris, despite having a solid game, only had two shot attempts - both made - in the quarter.

Melton’s performance was one of the Sixers’ bright spots.

The shooting guard shot the ball well for the second consecutive game after being in a shooting slump. But on this night, Melton finished with a season-high 30 points on 8-for-13 shooting – including making 4 of 6 three-pointers. He also made all 10 of his free throws and scored 10 points on 4-for-7 shooting against the Pacers Sunday night.

» READ MORE: Without Nicolas Batum and Kelly Oubre Jr., Sixers see eight-game winning streak end against Indiana

This comes after Melton averaged 7.9 points on 30% shooting in the first eight games.

“We always trust him,” Embiid said. “And the last thing we want him to do is not shoot it. So make or miss, he’s got to keep on shooting. Tonight, he made some. So that was good to see.”

The sixth-year veteran was in attack mode. His teammates found him a few times to close out the third quarter

Melton ended up scoring 15 of his points in the third.

For the most part, Maxey had a rough night.

He finished with 27 points on 9-for-23 shooting. However, had 12 points while making just 4 of 12 shots in the first three quarters.

This was a big difference from his career-high 50-point performance on 20-32 shooting against the Pacers on Sunday.

» READ MORE: Zach LaVine may be available, but does he fit in Philly? Sixers remaining patient, source says.

“They were extremely physical,” Maxey said. “Extremely physical. But you got to fight through them. You know what I mean? You got to fight through them. Be able to fight through your spot. A couple of times Coach Nurse got on me because he felt like I wasn’t going to get the ball as much because of their physicality.

“Yeah, I kind of got frustrated and forced a couple of shots that I didn’t have because of the physicality.”

Maxey knows he has to do better with that.

If not, opponents will use this as a blueprint to get him out of his game.