Indiana Pacers Start Western Road Trip
The Indiana Pacers will travel out West to test their play against some struggling teams, but not so fast, they also get to try and take down the hottest team in basketball, the Golden State Warriors.
Following back-to-back losses against tough Eastern Conference teams, the Indiana Pacers get to go out West and play three teams that have had nothing going for them this season. That makes up 75 percent of the four-game trip.
The fourth team, however, is the Golden State Warriors. You know that Warriors team, right? They are only the best team in basketball right now and are chasing an NBA record for best record in a season.
Despite the success of the Warriors, this road trip will be a great opportunity for a struggling Pacers team to get back on track. The Sacramento Kings, Denver Nuggets, and Phoenix Suns are the three other teams that make up this road trip.
Where to first?
It starts Sunday when the Pacers square off against the Nuggets. The Nuggets are 10 games below .500 right now at 15-25. Have they been struggling? Yes. The Pacers will still need to be careful. On Wednesday, the Nuggets took down the most talked about team in sports, the Warriors.
Some say the Nuggets got lucky, but a win is a win and right now that is the Nuggets’ biggest achievement of the year. The key for a Pacers win in this game is shutting down Danilo Gallinari early. He has been the best player for this Nuggets team and had 28 points in the win against the Warriors. But just shutting down the best player on the other team usually isn’t enough.
The Pacers’ offense must get better and that means having a second option to go to besides Paul George.
After that it’s the Suns. The Pacers travel to Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix on Tuesday to take a team that is at 13-28 through Saturday. The Suns are riding a three-game losing streak and one of them came to the Pacers. It’s been tough for the Suns this year. They are just trying to keep their head above water and ever since they lost star guard Eric Bledsoe to a season-ending knee injury it just hasn’t been the same Suns team.
Bledsoe was averaging 20.4 points per game and 6.1 assists per game in the 31 games he got to play in. Losing such a big player can turn your season for the worse. They, like the Pacers, have no other option besides their best player. Brandon Knight, averaging 19.7 points per game, has to do it all. The next highest scoring average on the team is 9.1. Nonetheless, the Pacers will need to take advantage of a weakened team in Phoenix.
Huge Battle on ESPN
Next Friday, Jan. 22, is the real test of this road trip. The Pacers will get to go into Oracle Arena in Oakland and try to hand the reigning champions their first home loss of the season. The tough part about this game will be shutting down a team that has so many options. They can hurt you with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson or even Draymond Green.
When the Pacers were playing their best defense of the year this game would be so much more interesting. Lately, the Pacers have been giving up way too many points to be considered a “defensive minded” team. In their last four games, they average 111 points given up. To beat the Warriors, it starts on defense. Shutting down their weapons is so tough, but you have to make someone besides Curry and Thompson beat you. If you can do that, then get George the ball. Let your best player have a huge game on ESPN and steal one on the road.
Wrapping up this road trip is a game between the Pacers and Kings on Jan. 23. Although the Kings have had a bad start to the season, they are better than both the Nuggets and Suns. DeMarcus Cousins and Rajon Rondo are the two players the Pacers will have to look out for. Cousins has big game potential every time he steps on the court.
The Kings are probably looking at this home game like one they can just go out and play their best, hoping to beat the better Eastern Conference team. The Kings like to have high scoring games, they are top three in the league in points per game at 106.3.
One thing the Pacers could do to stop this is slow the game down. Currently the Pacers average 98.97 possessions per 48 minutes played. That is lower than the Kings, who average 101.22. If the Pacers can slow the game down, the Kings won’t be able to score as much.
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No NBA team should ever be taken lightly, but this road trip is a great opportunity for a team trying to find consistency to get some. If they can at least get three wins, it should be considered a successful trip out West.