Winners of four straight and 10 of 12, the Indiana Pacers roll into the regular season’s closing stretch looking to solidify home-court advantage for the playoffs with the Washington Wizards visiting Indianapolis on Tuesday.
The Pacers (47-31) continued their hot play on Sunday with a 125-120 win at Denver. Indiana maintains a three-game lead over Milwaukee for fourth place in the Eastern Conference with four games remaining on the Pacers’ schedule.
They are three games behind third-place New York and four ahead of sixth-place Detroit.
Following Sunday’s win, Indiana coach Rick Carlisle called this final week of the regular season an unofficial start to the Pacers’ postseason.
“We went through some really difficult playoff stuff last year, played in three series,” Carlisle said. “Guys (who) had never played in the playoffs got a real dose last year. These last (four) games are going to be playoff games. We’ve got to approach it that way.
“Washington, too,” he added. “Washington gave us two hellacious games.”
Washington (17-61), which trails Utah by 1 1/2 games for the league’s worst record, is 0-3 against Indiana this season. However, the Wizards played the Pacers tough in a 115-103 decision on Nov. 24. The Wizards took the Pacers to overtime in a 134-130 defeat on Feb. 12, as Indiana was powered by Obi Toppin’s 31 points and 10 rebounds and Bennedict Mathurin’s 28 points, both off the bench.
Toppin and Mathurin leading in that way reflects a larger characteristic around which Indiana has built its identity in 2024-25.
“Our strength is in our togetherness,” said Pacers starting center Myles Turner. “We have a very deep team. Anybody at any time can go off for 20 points.”
Toppin is coming off a 22-point game vs. Denver, stepping up with Pascal Siakam out due to bursitis, while Mathurin has scored 20-plus six times since March 8.
Indiana’s variety of capable scorers contribute to a 117.5-point per game offense, which ranks seventh in the NBA. Siakam’s 20.3 points and Tyrese Haliburton’s 18.5 points with 9.3 assists per game set the tone.
As for Washington, the Wizards are trying to finish strong and avoid their second consecutive season of fewer than 20 wins. Last year’s team finished 15-67, the worst mark in franchise history.
Washington comes into Tuesday’s contest having lost five of the last six. The Wizards failed to score more than 97 points in their last three losses to Miami on March 31, Orlando on Thursday and Sunday at Boston.
The recent scoring woes underscore Washington’s season-long output of 108.3 points per game, which ranks No. 27 in the league. In Boston, the Wizards were outrebounded 62-32 and, at 48.8 boards per game, Washington allows the most of any NBA team.
With Richaun Holmes and Tristan Vukcevic sidelined with shoulder and knee injuries, Wizards coach Brian Keefe started an undersized lineup on Sunday with three guards — Jordan Poole and rookies Bub Carrington and AJ Johnson — and 6-foot-6 forward Justin Champagnie around 7-foot rookie Alex Sarr.
“These are the guys we have,” Keefe said. “We expect everybody to go and do their job.”
–Field Level Media
