Things You Already Know:
Before a recent five-game losing streak (that they snapped on Friday against the Hawks), the Pacers were one of the Eastern Conference’s surprise teams, opening up the season with a 15-13 record and seemingly destined for a playoff berth. However, their
recent skid is not necessarily cause for panic as two of the losses came in back-to-back nights against the Detroit Pistons and another against the much-improved Atlanta Hawks.
Although his stat line this season may say otherwise, perennial All-Star Jermaine O’Neal—a name mentioned frequently in offseason trade speculation between L.A. and Indianapolis—is still the definitive leader of the young Pacers squad. He is only averaging 17 points and 8 rebounds a game, but O’Neal is still the go-to player on Indy’s roster and has shown signs during the past few weeks that he is finally moving out of his early-season slump.
Things You Might Not Know:
Several players on the Pacers roster are quietly having career years, led by Mike Dunleavy Jr., Danny Granger and a better than ever, Jamaal Tinsley (who has missed the past four games with a thigh injury and remains listed as day-to-day). Dunleavy leads the Pacers with 17 points, while Granger averages 16 points and Tinsley scores 14 points to go along with almost nine assists. In all, Indiana averages almost 104 points per game, good enough for seventh in the league and second in the Eastern Conference to Orlando.
Marquis Daniels is the main spark plug off of the Pacers’ bench with over 9 points a night. As a whole, the Pacers bench—comprised of Daniels, Shawne Williams, Ike Diogu, David Harrison, Kareem Rush, Jeff Foster, Steven Graham, Travis Diener and Andrew Owens (who has been starting in Tinsley’s place)—averages almost 50 points per game and is one of the few reserve corps in the league that has the same impact that the Lakers bench mob has.
Things You Need To Know:
While the Pacers have a formidable offense, they struggle defensively, giving up over 104 points a night to opponents. In their last game versus the Lakers—a 134-114 defeat at Conseco Field House—the Pacers showed an inability to match up against the Lakers one-two punch of Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum. Kobe went off for 32 points in only 31 minutes while Bynum pulled down 10 rebounds to go along with his 17 points. Indiana was also unable to slow down Jordan Farmar who also had a strong game with 18 points off the bench.
In that game, the Lakers did an excellent job forcing the Pacers to settle for outside shots, resulting in them missing 21 of 27 attempts from beyond the arc.
The Lakers need to perform well in Sunday’s game against the Pacers as the team needs to establish momentum before it embarks on a two-game road trip beginning with the Grizzlies and finishing with conference-rival New Orleans the following night.
