Sixers takeaways: Nick Nurse, Caleb Martin avoid disaster; Andre Drummond gets clutch steals

Nick Nurse and Caleb Martin dodged potential game-altering decisions.

Andre Drummond might be a better defender than one would think. And the 76ers showed some resilience.

Those three things stood out Sunday in the Sixers’ 118-114 overtime victory over the Indiana Pacers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

With the Sixers trailing by 100-97 with 1 minute, 42 seconds left in regulation, Nurse received a technical foul for yelling at an official over a possible shot-clock violation.

Then with the Sixers up two points with five seconds remaining in overtime, Martin fouled Tyrese Haliburton, putting him at the line.

In both instances, the Sixers avoided disaster because the Pacers missed free throws.

“I was just trying to figure out, you know, they had the ball for 23 seconds,” said Nurse, the Sixers coach, “and how an error by their shot clock guy gives them the ball with another added time, added game time … I don’t know, the same thing happened to us a few times. I don’t ever recall that being the situation that more clock was put on and the team gets to go back to where they started from even after dribbling it around for five seconds.”

But Haliburton missed the technical foul shot that would have put the Pacers up four points and retained possession.

The Sixers managed to battle back and take a three-point lead late before Haliburton forced overtime with 3.5 seconds left. Then Martin made his mental error after Tyrese Maxey hit two shots to give the Sixers a 116-114 lead in the closing seconds of overtime.

But Haliburton missed the first free throw before intentionally missing the second. Martin made amends by grabbing the rebound before being fouled by Haliburton.

Maxey iced the game with a pair of free throws.

“Obviously, I knew that wasn’t one of the smartest plays I ever did,” Martin said. “I think I already had in my mind that Tyrese made two of them. It was just a brain fart play or whatever. It was a play that can’t happen. But yeah, you learn from that, getting back into the swing of things after a couple of games.

“I’m glad we got that one.”

Drummond is known for being an elite rebounder and as a rim-running big man. However, he came up with huge steals on consecutive late-game possessions.

With the Sixers trailing 102-101, he stole the ball from Andrew Nembhard. The play led to Martin’s layup that gave Philly a 103-102 advantage with 32.4 seconds left in regulation. Drummond then stole the ball from Haliburton with 19.4 seconds remaining.

“That’s what I do. How long have you been a reporter? Drummond said to a reporter with 30-plus years of covering the NBA. “You’ve seen me play. That’s a part of my game.”

He said timing was the key to stealing the ball from the guards.

“When the guards come off [screens] and try to see what I am going to do first, if I’m going to be aggressive or not,” Drummond said, “once they take that lazy dribble, I go out and go for it.”

The 6-foot-11, 279-pounder finished with nine points, a game-high 17 rebounds, and one block to go with his two steals.

This was a solid bounce-back performance for the undermanned Sixers.

They pulled off the thrilling victory two days after suffering a humbling loss to the rebuilding and more undermanned Toronto Raptors.

“We are going to fight,” Kelly Oubre Jr. said. “We are creating that identity. I think tonight we did a better job of following Coach’s game plan with being physical, stopping their initial transition, which they play fast.”

The Sixers also remained confident and continued to work hard even when things weren’t working.

“We just stay resilient,” Oubre said.