Indiana Pacers (6-9) vs. Orlando Magic (6-11)
The Indiana Pacers are getting a little bit closer to the lineups expected when the season started as both C.J. Watson and David West are making their season debuts tonight against the Orlando Magic. Having the back-up point guard and starting power forward back will help open up the floor for a struggling Pacers offense. Hibbert is expected to return tonight as too. Orlando has fought with injuries as well this season and is a .500 team with their lineup of Harris, Channing Frye, Nikola Vucevic, Evan Fournier and Victor Oladipo, all of which are expected to start tonight against Pacers according to NBA.com.
The Magic are very dependent on getting to the rim and near the basket as 46% of their points come from the paint. The job will be a bit more difficult for the Magic with Roy Hibbert and now West protecting Indiana’s backcourt. The Pacers have played well as of late and though they lost to the Spurs on Wednesday, their lineup is continuing to get healthy. That gives Indiana a chance to keep the momentum rolling at home as they have won five of their last eight games.
Who to watch on the Magic Nikola Vučević leads Orlando in scoring with 18.8 points a game but should face Roy Hibbert tonight. Hibbert is recovering from his ankle injury, but with West returning that should allow Hibbert to stay even closer to the basket as he shouldn’t have to play as much help defense as he did earlier this season with Luis Scola playing there.
Who to watch on the Pacers: Both Watson and West are back so we finally get to see what the can do with this edition of the Pacers. West is confirmed to be a starter tonight, but we’ll have to see how coach Frank Vogel handles Watsons minutes. Donald Sloan is doing much better than he did a season ago, so there isn’t the urgency to return things to where they were expected to be when the season began.
The Big Question
How well will the line-ups come together tonight? We saw early in the season how a lack of familiarity led to a number of turnovers as players threw passes to where they expected there team mates to be. Watson and West are veterans so I don’t expect as much trouble, but it is something to keep an eye on.
Betting Line
Indiana is a -5 favorite with a over/under of 191. I don’t expect this to be a shootout and with the way Indiana has played of late, I think we can expect the Pacers to cover the spread. I’m a little weary of the over/under, but the over seems like a safer bet.
One Random Thing
The Pacers draw two cards from their deck against the Magic. pic.twitter.com/0Sp7KUvdNh
— Ben Gibson (@CowboyOnPatrol) November 28, 2014