INDIANAPOLIS — The 76ers had a new lineup Wednesday night but walked off the floor with a familiar result.
Indiana pulled away in overtime to hand the Sixers their seventh straight loss, 122-115, on a night the team rested center Joel Embiid. The Sixers remain the Eastern Conference’s lone winless team.
Robert Covington had 23 points and Hollis Thompson added 19 off the bench for the Sixers, who haven’t won a November game in almost three years.
Dario Saric (14 points, 12 rebounds) had the first basket of overtime but the Sixers went cold, missing their next six field goal tries. The Pacers' Paul George tripled early in the extra session to kick off a mini run that put the hosts ahead for good.
Gerald Henderson gave the Sixers a lead with a triple with 6.3 seconds left in regulation, but George tied the game at 109 less than two seconds later with a short jumper. Henderson finished with 17 points.
The Sixers got a final chance but Jahlil Okafor missed a fadeaway jumper, sending the game to an extra period. He finished the night with 15 points on 7 for 11 shooting but went 1 for 5 from the free throw line.
NBA
Embiid missed his second game of the season for team-mandated rest. He did not travel with the team.
Indiana started the fourth quarter on a 10-2 run but the Sixers stayed close and took the lead back with a 10-0 spurt that began with Thompson’s three-pointer with less than five minutes left.
The Sixers led, 60-54, at halftime after shooting 54 percent from the floor and scoring 10 points off the Pacers’ 10 opening-half giveaways. Indiana tied the game at 84 by the end of the third and got three-pointers from C.J. Miles and Monta Ellis early in the final period to go in front.
Jeff Teague scored 30 points and George added 28 for the Pacers, who have won 10 of the last 11 meetings with the Sixers.
Give and take
The Sixers’ turnover woes continued Wednesday, two nights after they coughed the ball up 18 times in a 109-84 loss to Utah.
The Sixers, who began the night tied for 28th in the league with 17.3 giveaways per game, had 17 miscues. Indiana turned them into 16 points.
The Pacers weren’t much better: They watched the Sixers score 24 off their 15 mistakes.
Autumn skid continues
The loss ran the Sixers’ skid to 44 straight losses in October and November. Their last victory in either month was Nov. 22, 2013.
The Sixers lost their first 18 last season and waited until Dec. 1 to add their first win to the ledger.
He'll be back
Coach Brett Brown said the Sixers expect to have Embiid back on the court Friday night when they return to Philly. The rookie 7-footer stayed home Wednesday as part of the team’s plan to ease him in after missing his first two seasons with foot injuries.
“There is judgement that the sports science people make on what is responsible and what isn’t,” Brown said. “The decision not to bring him to Indiana was born out of that, and it’s our understanding that he will be good to go when we return to Philadelphia.”
Embiid is leading NBA rookies in scoring (17.6), rebounds (6.8) and blocks (2.6) and tops the league with a 66.7 three-point percentage in his first five games.
Up next
The teams head to the Wells Fargo Center on Friday for the second matchup of the four-game season series. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. on CSN.
The Sixers travel to Atlanta a night later for the second half of a back-to-back set.