Indiana Pacers will start an important five-game home on Wednesday when the sinking Dallas Mavericks comes to Indianapolis.
Pacers (38-29) enters the final 15 game’s stretch of the regular season that fights for the home court’s advantage in an opening round series.
Indiana is tied with Milwaukee Bucks for the fourth place in the Eastern Conference. Bucks owns Tiebreaker, after winning the regular season series after Saturday’s decision 126-119 in Milwaukee.
The surprising Detroit Piston loom in sixth, matching Indiana and Milwaukee in the Win column entering Tuesday’s game, with Bucks that meets the Golden State Warriors.
Pacers not only play their next five games at home, they have eight of their next 10 on their home ground. Indiana enters the critical driving on a high tone and recovers from Saturday’s setback on Milwaukee with an overtime of 132-130 at Minnesota on Monday.
Monday’s victory was an opportunity for Indiana to show his depth, with Bennedict Mathurin who scored 22 points while he started instead of Tyrese Haliburton. Haliburton set out with a back injury, along with other starter Pascal Siakam (personal), Myles Turner (hip) and Aaron Nesmith (Ankel). Haliburton and Siakam are hesitant for Tuesday’s play while Turner and Nesmith are not listed in the report ..
Eight Indiana players made in double figures to fill the void, including Obi Toppin with a season high 34 points. He also took 10 returns for his second double double with at least 30 points since last month.
“We have amazing guys in this team who know their jobs,” Toppin said. “Everyone in this team is a very good NBA player. … they know what they have to do when they get into the game and they are thirsty. Not everyone plays every game.”
The depth is a problem for a fading Mavericks (33-36), which is on a three-game losing slide after a 130-125 home loss on Sunday to Philadelphia 76ers.
Already thin in Frontcourt with Anthony Davis, Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford sideways with injuries, Mavericks absorbed a backcourt loss early into Sunday’s defeat when Dante Exum broke his hand.
Exum, which joined the arrangement until January 31 after recovering from offseason-wrist surgery, began to see a more prominent role with All-Star Kyrie Irving due to a broken ACL. Maverick’s coach Jason Kidd called Irving’s injury earlier this month a “freak accident.”
Irving was an average of 24.7 points per match, the team high after last month’s surprising trade that sent Luka Doncic to Los Angeles Lakers for Davis. Davis had 26 points, 16 returns, seven assists and three blocked shots in his lone look with Mavericks on February 8.
In the 16 games that Davis has missed with an adductor injury, Dallas is 5-11 and loses the ground in the race for a Western Conference-Play-in round. Mavericks is in 10th place, good for the final place, but had his lead over 11th place Phoenix witnessed down to a game after Sun’s’ outbuilding victory over Toronto Raptors on Monday.
“We are professional and our job is to come out here and act regardless of circumstances that we are in,” said Mavs’ Max Christie, according to Dallas Morning News.
Christie was a bright place in Monday’s loss to Philadelphia and came from the bench to hit 4 out of 6 shots from 3-point reach on the way to 18 points. Dallas also received 29 points and 12 returns from PJ Washington in his first full game since February 25.
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