Thunder vs Pacers NBA Handicapping
Late last May it looked like the Indiana Pacers were really on to something. They had the Miami Heat in a bit of a box, up 2-1 in their second-round playoff series, with Game 4 at home.
Oklahoma City Thunder (55-20) at Indiana Pacers (48-27)
Friday, April 5
Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Indianapolis
8 p.m. EST
Spread – Pacers -3
O/U – 192
But Indiana laid an egg in that game, then dropped two more and went home for the season.
Nearly a year later and not much has changed. The Pacers are considered a threat in the Eastern Conference with a decent chance of getting the No. 2 seed. And no one not in the 46204 area code thinks they have a chance to beat the Heat.
But dealing with Miami might be getting too far out front of tings because there is the small matter of 7 games remaining in the regular season, including tonight’s relatively important scrum at home against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
CLICK GRAB OUR BEST Expert NBA Picks for 2013 HOOPS GAMBLING season!
The Pacers have a few things going for them in this one. They have some momentum garnered from sweeping a 4-game road trip (Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, Clippers) and have 5 victories in a row overall as they match victory for victory with the red-hot (10 in a row) Knicks in a down-to-the-wire battle for the second seed in the East.
Last season the Pacers got great play down the stretch and into the playoffs from 7-foot-2 center Roy Hibbert. The big guy seems to have motivation problems at times (let’s just say he’s no Dave Cowens and leave it at that) but now realizes that if he’s not dominating, all other things being equal the Pacers’ post-season ceiling is just not that high. [ad-6571516]
Hibbert says that a recent injury to David West motivated him to pick up some of the scoring slack, and with West down for a few games Hibbert got more touches, which led to more scoring, which somehow led to more rebounds.
“I’ve been trying to do the job on the defensive end, but when David went out, I knew I had to be more aggressive [offensively],” Hibbert said. “They needed a post presence. Sometimes, I feel like I can do a lot more and it was time to step up and do it.”
Whatever the reason, a top-of-his game motivated Hibbert can be the X-Factor in a playoffs which do not feature a lot of talented 7-footers who play with their back to the basket.
THE PICK – The Thunder played and won last night against depleted San Antonio and are now even with San Antonio in the loss column as the teams vie for the No. 1 seed in the West. So both the Pacers and Thunder need this game, which means that both will dig in on defense for at least 36 of the 48 minutes. An under play deserves consideration here as we may be looking at a close game that goes to the wire, keeping scoring down.
