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Clippers vs. Pacers Preview: Day of the Trade Deadline
The Clippers will try to move past their two-game losing skid at home against the high-flying Pacers on that most tumultuous of days, the NBA trade deadline.
Game
Information
Where: Intuit Dome, Inglewood, California
When: 7:30 PM PT
How to Watch: FanDuel Sports SoCal, AM 570
Projected
Starting Lineups
Pacers: Tyrese Haliburton – Andrew Nembhard – Bennedict Mathurin – Pascal Siakam – Myles Turner
Clippers: James Harden – Norm Powell – Derrick Jones Jr. – Kawhi Leonard – Ivica Zubac
Injuries
Pacers: Isaiah Jackson Out (Achilles), James Wiseman Out (Achilles)
Clippers: None
The Big
Picture
The Clippers are in the midst of their worst stretch of the entire season. They had a lackluster win against a dreadful Hornets team on Friday, got soundly outplayed by the Raptors on Sunday, and then got run out of the building against the rival Lakers on Tuesday. Worse than the results were the process and vibes, as the Clippers’ energy, effort, and overall execution were miserable. The Clippers have succeeded this season on defense and effort, and the lack of those things the past three games has been noticeable. Maybe the Clippers are just feeling the aftereffects of their five-in-seven stretch followed by the road trip, maybe they’re just missing Mo Bamba, or maybe it’s just mid-season blues. But the Clippers do not have the talent or offensive firepower, even with Kawhi back, to slack like this on defense and effort. I would imagine they got reamed out after last game, and come out with more energy tonight.
The
Antagonist
The Pacers
have turned things around after a very slow start to the season. To be fair,
the Pacers were dealing with a lot of injuries early, but they were still quite
disappointing. Since, they’ve been very good, certainly one of the four or five
best teams in the East. That turnaround can be credited mostly to Pascal Siakam
(a deserving All Star this year) and Tyrese Haliburton (who has been close to
last year’s levels after a miserable first month of the season). The Pacers are
very good on offense (9th) and middling on defense (19th),
a recipe for a good-but-not-great team. Still, on any given night when their
shots are falling and the ball is humming on offense, they can look practically
unstoppable.
Notes
Trade Deadline Day: Something to keep an eye on today as we approach the trade deadline at 3 PM ET are both team’s injury reports. If a trade is approaching, teams like to hold guys out just in case, so if we see anyone on the Clippers or Pacers all of a sudden pop up, it’s possible a trade is underway. Or, of course, a player got injured in shootaround or some other random activity – you never know. Still, trade deadlines are always odd, and it’s possible one or both teams make a move today. We will just see.
Battle of Pace: Fittingly for the Pacers, Indiana plays at one of the fastest tempos in the NBA, ranking 6th in pace. The Clippers, as befits an old, methodical, defense-first team, rank 20th in the NBA in pace. In such matchups with large contrasts in style of play, whichever team can get the tempo more to their liking will have an advantage. Can the Clippers get stops and slow the game down to a crawl? Or will the Pacers be able to get out and run, punishing the Clippers in transition (they’ve been awful there the past couple days)? The Clippers had better hope it’s the former, because when the Pacers are flying around in transition they are at their most deadly, and the Clippers will be ill equipped to stop them.
Clippers vs. Pacers Preview: Day of the Trade Deadline
Robert Flom