The Pacers and Pels wrap up their season series in the Big Easy.
The Indiana Pacers (17-16) will try to sweep their season series against the New Orleans Pelicans (20-12) when they visit the Smoothie King Center on Monday night.
The Pacers are building on impressive road wins at Boston and Miami, as they face a Pels team that currently sits in second place in the East with experience appearing to be the main thing holding them back from making it through the West in late May. But with a dynamic front court lead by Zion Williamson, the Pels will be a matchup problem for any team.
The Pacers beat the Pacers in the first meeting back in November, 129-122 and were able to flip the front court matchup in their favor. Myles Turner went for 37 points, 12 rebounds and 3 blocks while Jalen Smith added 15 points and 11 rebounds. Zion and Brandon Ingram were strong as well, but CJ McCollum came down with a case of the Nembhards and the Pacers were able to hang on for the win.
Ingram is out this time around, but Smith and Turner haven’t been playing up to that level of late, either. In fact, the Pacers have been starting smaller with Smith coming off the bench. The Pacers may do the same with Ingram out, but with Aaron Nesmith also questionable, the matchup with Zion remains a major concern.
Of course, the Pels have to slow down the Pacers and Tyrese Haliburton who has been on fire lately both scoring and setting up the shooters around him. The Pacers will need the three balls to keep falling to complete the season sweep of the Pels.
DraftKings Odds: Pelicans-2.5, O/U 234 (latest DraftKings odds here)
When: 8:00 p.m. ET
Where: Smoothie King Center, New Orleans, LA
TV: Bally Sports Indiana/Bally Sports + app
Radio: 93.5 FM/107.5 FM
Projected Starting Lineups:
Pacers: Tyrese Haliburton, Andrew Nembhard, Buddy Hield, Bennedict Mathurin, Myles Turner
Pelicans: CJ McCollum, Herb Jones, Trey Murphy III, Zion Williamson, Jonas Valanciunas
IND: Aaron Nesmith – questionable (ankle sprain), Jalen Smith – questionable (ankle sprain), Kendall Brown – out (right tibia stress reaction), Daniel Theis – out (knee surgery)
NOP: Larry Nance Jr. – questionable (sore Achilles), Brandon Ingram – out (left great toe contusion), E.J. Liddell – out (ACL recovery)
Please share your thoughts and observations on the game in the comments.