PHILADELPHIA _ Try as he might, Joel Embiid could not carry the 76ers to a victory on Friday night.
The Sixers were again tested by one of the East's top teams, and again fell short, losing to the Indiana Pacers, who passed them for third place in the Eastern Conference standings, 113-101.
Even on a night when Embiid finished with 40 points and 21 rebounds, becoming the first Sixer to notch 30 points and 20 rebounds since Charles Barkley on Dec. 7, 1990, the Sixers didn't have enough and fell to 19-11 on the season.
The Pacers came into the game on a five-game win streak, just a half a game behind the Sixers despite having played 11 consecutive games without their leading scorer, Victor Oladipo. It was just Oladipo's second game back after being out for three weeks with a sore right knee.
Even though Oladipo was back in the Pacers' rotation, it was Thaddeus Young leading the way for Indiana, finishing the night with 26 points in the Sixers' third home loss of the season.
Embiid put the Sixers on his back in the first half, scoring 28 and points and grabbing 14 rebounds, but lost steam at the end of the third and early minutes of the fourth quarter.
The first two periods were a showcase for why the Sixers' 7-foot-2 center has been in the conversation for this season's MVP award. Embiid hit from everywhere on the floor with pull-ups from mid-range and beyond the arc, dunks, layups, put-backs, and went 9 of 12 from the free-throw line.
And the Sixers needed all they could get from their All-Star center. After jumping out to an early 10-0 lead with JJ Redick getting hot from mid-range, the Sixers couldn't buy a bucket, going 5 of 19 from 3-point range through the first half.
Redick started out the night hitting a string of jumpers, but didn't let his continuing 3-point shooting slump deter him, finishing the night with 22 points in the loss. In the three games leading up to Friday Redick was a combined 13 of 45 from 3 and went 4 for 12 against Indiana.
Instead of coming out of intermission and expanding their 59-49 lead, the Sixers watched it dwindle away. The Pacers outscored the home team 31-18 in the third with Bojan Bogdanovic getting hot for 11 third-quarter points as the Sixers stayed cold going 1 for 8 from deep.
Young kept things going for the Pacers in the final stanza, punishing the Sixers at every opportunity and the Pacers improved to 19-10 on the season.
