Eastern Conference counterparts jockeying for postseason position meet on Wednesday in Indianapolis when the Indiana Pacers host the Chicago Bulls.
Indiana opened a back-to-back set on Tuesday with a 121-111 road win over one of the Western Conference co-leaders, the Oklahoma City Thunder. Coupled with the Philadelphia 76ers’ 106-79 defeat at New York, the Pacers moved to sixth place in the East — the last guaranteed playoff spot.
Six Pacers scored in double figures, led by Myles Turner with 24 points, while NBA assists leader Tyrese Haliburton dished out 12 to go with his 18 points.
Indiana limited Oklahoma City to 111 points, a solid result against a team that came in averaging 120.8 points per game. The Pacers’ season-long per-game defensive yield had been 121.4 points.
“We know what’s at stake. We know all these games are basically playoff games,” Turner told Bally Sports Indiana in his postgame interview. “We control our own destiny. We’re not looking for help. Like I said, we’ve got to stay together at this time of year, it’s the most important part.”
The Pacers were dealt a significant blow for their late-season push when sparkplug scorer Bennedict Mathurin, averaging 14.5 points per game, sustained a season-ending right shoulder injury last week. He will require surgery.
Indiana responded by winning two of the first three games since losing Mathurin, both against teams currently in the playoff picture. Ahead of their victory on Tuesday in Oklahoma City, the Pacers beat the host Orlando Magic 111-97 on Sunday.
It was the first time since Feb. 4 that Indiana held an opponent to fewer than 100 points.
Chicago, meanwhile, pulled within a game of .500 last week after winning four of five games, including the first three of a four-game Western Conference road trip. But the Bulls ended the trek with a 112-102 defeat against the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday, then dropped a 127-92 blowout at home against the Dallas Mavericks on Monday.
“Got to move forward,” Chicago’s DeMar DeRozan said. “Feels like every team is due for a butt-kicking of some sort throughout the season, and we have to let this be ours and the last and only one for the rest of the season and be ready to respond come Wednesday.”
Chicago comes into the Wednesday contest in ninth place in the Eastern Conference, five games in the loss column behind seventh-place Philadelphia and the eighth-place Miami Heat.
The Wednesday matchup is the Bulls’ first of two head-to-head opportunities against the Pacers in the coming stretch. Indiana is slated to visit Chicago on March 27.
The teams split the previous two meetings. The Bulls posted a 112-105 win when they visited Indiana on Oct. 30, and the Pacers responded with a 120-104 victory in Chicago on Dec. 28.
Chicago can expect a different look from Indiana this time, however, with the Pacers’ addition of Pascal Siakam in January.
Siakam is averaging 20.5 points and 7.2 rebounds in 25 games with Indiana, and he amassed 18 points and 11 rebounds on Tuesday.
Coby White has come alive as a top scoring option for Chicago over the past two months. Five of his seven 30-plus-point games have occurred since the Bulls and Pacers last met, and his season average is up to 19.6 points per game — second on the team only to DeRozan’s 23 points per game.
–Field Level Media