A pair of groups coming off vastly totally different months will meet on Saturday in Indianapolis, the place the Indiana Pacers host the Atlanta Hawks.
The Pacers enter play winners in 4 of 5 video games and loved a 10-2 January to springboard themselves into the Japanese Convention playoff image. After main the NBA in scoring final season, Indiana has discovered its offensive type of late, averaging 134.5 factors in its final two wins.
In Wednesday’s 133-119 house victory over the Detroit Pistons, the Pacers’ scoring prowess was on full show, as they shot 56.8 p.c from the sector and made 19 of their 38 3-point makes an attempt. Main the best way for Indiana was newly named All-Star Pascal Siakam, who had 37 factors — his most since being traded from Toronto halfway by way of final season.
The three-time All-Star is averaging 20.5 factors and seven.3 rebounds and has began all 46 video games this season. The nine-year veteran’s profession has benefited drastically since becoming a member of the Pacers final January.
“I am blessed to be part of this staff,” Siakam mentioned. “The help I’ve had since I have been right here has been superb. I do not assume I’ve ever had a company present a lot help from the highest to the underside. … It means loads to characterize the Pacers on All-Star Weekend.”
Indiana, which has climbed to the fifth seed within the convention standings, will get 18.3 factors and eight.6 assists per sport from Tyrese Haliburton, and 16.4 ppg from Bennedict Mathurin. The Pacers will hope to hold over their success in opposition to the Hawks from final season, after they swept the four-game season sequence with Atlanta.
Simply two weeks in the past, it appeared the Hawks had been on monitor to cement themselves as a playoff contender. Since Atlanta’s Jan. 18 win over the Boston Celtics, Atlanta has dropped seven straight video games and has misplaced budding star Jalen Johnson for the season with a torn labrum in his shoulder.
Johnson, who signed a five-year extension with Atlanta earlier than the season, was averaging 18.9 factors, 10 rebounds and 5 assists per contest.
Johnson’s absence has positioned extra of an significance on the offensive play of Trae Younger. Atlanta’s level guard is averaging 22.5 factors and a league-high 11.4 assists per sport however was left off the Japanese Convention All-Star reserve record on Thursday, a lot to the chagrin of his head coach Quin Snyder.
“I am extraordinarily dissatisfied,” Snyder mentioned of Younger’s snub. “I have never coached him for lengthy, however I really feel like he is had the most effective 12 months of his profession. I feel that is statistically supported. … No disrespect to anybody who made it, however as Trae’s coach, I’m allowed to really feel disappointment for him not making it.”
Within the Hawks’ 137-115 street loss Thursday to the Cleveland Cavaliers, which prolonged Atlanta’s longest dropping streak since 2019, final 12 months’s prime general draft decide Zaccharie Risacher completed with 30 factors on 11-for-14 capturing from the sector. The 19-year-old is averaging 11.0 ppg and can compete within the Rising Stars Problem on All-Star Weekend in San Francisco.
–Discipline Stage Media
