Tonight Is The Pacers' Most Important Game
- Chris Poindexter
- Apr 5, 2019
- 2 min read
Tonight is the night. The Pacers’ season comes down to tonight. A loss to the Celtics tonight will virtually decide the seeding for the playoffs. A loss tonight means the Pacers will most likely have the 5th seed and will lose home court advantage. If you have been watching the Pacers lately than you understand how important home court is. Over the last 12 road games the Pacers have an abysmal record of 2-10. On the flip side, over the last 12 road games the Pacers are 9-3. If you want to look at the full season the Pacers so far are 29-10 at home while only 18-22 on the road.
So what do the Pacers have to do tonight to keep their hopes at the 4th seed alive? One thing is they need to control Aron Baynes. A sentence I never thought I would type, but it true. In Their last matchup, the Pacers allowed him to get a double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds. Domantas Sabonis and Myles Turner are going need to body Baynes up as they allowed him to get 4 offensive rebounds.
Next the Pacers need to shutdown Jayson Tatum and Gordon Hayward. The chances of stopping Kyrie Irving and Al Horford are slim to none, so along with Baynes the Pacers need to lock-down the Celtics role-players. With Marcus Morris out for tonight’s game and Jaylen Brown doubtful, I would expect to see a lot of Tatum and Hayward. Tatum only played 24 minutes in the Pacers last game; that will not be the case this time around.
On the Pacers side, I expect a big game from Thad Young. This is his 900th game. I would expect an 18 point and 8 rebound game from him tonight.
The biggest question mark for the Pacers tonight is going to be are Darren Collison and Wesley Matthews going to play? They are both game-time decisions. The Pacers need Collison’s scoring and Matthew’s defense more than ever tonight. If they are not available Aaron Holiday, Tyreke Evans, and Cory Joseph are all going to have play extraordinary. Most importantly, Evans cannot have another 1-13 shooting night, as he did in Detroit on Wednesday. On top of that, Dougie McBuckets will have to keep up his improved play here late in the season.
This is going to be a tough one. The Pacers are home, so that is a plus, and they know what is on-the-line. I hope that Banker’s Life Fieldhouse is loud tonight, because as the fearless leader, Victor Oladipo, tweeted out, “#BankersLifeGivesUsLife.” I expect another close game just like last time against the Celtics. This time the Pacers will come out on top. They are gonna claw their way into that 4 seed and then fight their way into the second round! You can watch the game tonight at 8:00 p.m. on Fox Sports Indiana and ESPN. You can also catch the game on the radio at 1070 The Fan.
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