A pair of teams batting for postseason position in their respective conferences will aim to get back on track on Monday, when the Indiana Pacers host the Sacramento Kings in Indianapolis.
The Pacers (43-31) have dropped two of three since a five-game winning streak but still lead the Detroit Pistons by a game for the Eastern Conference’s No. 4 seed. Desperately looking to hold on to home-court advantage in next month’s first round of the NBA Playoffs, Indiana will face five teams with losing records over the final eight games of the regular season, including Monday’s meeting with Sacramento (36-38).
The Pacers followed Thursday’s 162-109 road win over the Washington Wizards — their most points in franchise history — with Saturday’s 132-111 loss to the league-best Oklahoma City Thunder. Indiana held tough with the 62-win Thunder before allowing 71 second-half points en route to the blowout defeat.
“Early in the game, I thought we did a lot of good things,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said. “We were getting good shots, but things turned as the game went on. We had some struggles with turnovers and untimely poor possessions. That led to the majority of our problems. … If you want to play a playoff game at the end of March, you come play these guys.”
The Pacers are hoping to see their scoring leader Pascal Siakam (20.5 points per game) break out of a cold spell, with the All-Star failing to eclipse the 15-point mark in four consecutive games. Tyrese Haliburton, who had 18 points on Saturday, adds 18.6 points and 9.1 assists per contest for Indiana.
The Kings are in jeopardy of missing the 7-10 seeded play-in tournament, as they’ve lost five of six games and sit 10th in the West, just one game ahead of the Phoenix Suns — who they play in the regular season finale.
Sacramento was never competitive in Saturday’s wire-to-wire 121-91 road loss to the Orlando Magic, the Kings’ second fewest points all season. Interim head coach Doug Christie is 23-20 with the group since taking over for the fired Mike Brown in December but saw his team struggle in almost every area of Saturday’s game, the first of a six-city Eastern Conference road trip.
“Unfortunately, we did not do anything we talked about or wanted to do,” Christie said postgame. “We threw the ball around the gym, we did not get up the number of threes we wanted, the assists, the energy, all weren’t there. Especially when you’re in the type of position that we’re in, it was very disappointing to see the way our guys came out. … They must be better and they will be in Indiana.”
In defeat, the steady play of DeMar DeRozan continued, with the veteran pouring in 21 points. The 35-year-old veteran leads the Kings with 22 points per game and has tallied 20 points or more in nine of ten games.
In 24 games since being traded from Chicago, Zach Lavine is averaging 21.0 ppg, while former Pacer Domantas Sabonis chips in 18.9 points and a league-leading 14.0 rebounds per game.
