The Road Warriors series will be highlighting the Indiana Pacers road trips and how they have fared historically in opposing arenas. This time, we have a test of strength North of the border.
The Indiana Pacers are riding one the hottest streaks in recent team memory. Winners of 13 of their last 15, the Blue and Gold needed five extra minutes to finish off the Chicago Bulls on Friday night. The finish to that game took years off the lives of several Pacers fans as both sides took turns making improbable three-pointers. Victor Oladipo would get the last laugh after banking in a three with less than a second remaining in overtime.
The win moved the Pacers to a 26-12 record and strengthened their third seed in the Eastern Conference. For comparison, last year’s Pacers were 19-19 through their first 38 games and weren’t 14 games over .500 until March 29th when they were 45-31. This years team is special.
They look to gain even more ground in the race for the East when they head to Toronto Sunday evening to face the Raptors.
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According to Land of Basketball, this will be the 87th regular season meeting between the two franchises. The Pacers record in Toronto isn’t horrible at first glance, 18-26, but they started off 8-2 in their first ten road meetings. Since 2000, the Pacers have been 10-24.
The Raptors have been a matchup nightmare for the Pacers in this decade and have seemed to always bring their A-game when the two teams meet. The Pacers seemed to be turning their favor around earlier this season until a frankly embarrassing finish to drop their first meeting 96-99. The Raptors held them to just 11 points in the fourth quarter as the game just slowly unraveled for Indiana.
The 29-12 Raptors will be on the second night of a back to back against the other two top-tier East teams. Availability will be the main story heading into this one as two All-Stars’ status will be up in the air. Kawhi Leonard (27.1 points/game) and Kyle Lowry (14.4 points and 9.8 assists) are considered questionable. Leonard, who barely played last season, has yet to play in a back to back this year, though this would be a great one to start. Lowry is battling a bad back and did not play against the Bucks on Saturday.
Regardless, the Raptors have plenty of firepower to take on the Pacers. Serge Ibaka could be a significant force, especially if Myles Turner‘s shoulder is not ready to go. There are plenty of question marks for tomorrow, but I believe the Raptors will be close to full strength for this one. With that, I believe they are able to handle the Pacers at home.
Prediction: Raptors 115 Pacers 107
What’s in Town?
The Toronto Maple Leafs are in town and are hosting Vancouver for the hockey fans. There is next to nothing going on concert-wise, but it will definitely be cold. There is also a chance of snow heading into Monday.