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The Indiana Pacers kick off a quick, two-game road trip Tuesday night against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden, the toughest arena to play in the NBA this season.
The Celtics’s 21–2 home record is by far the best in the league, though they did lose to the Los Angeles Clippers 115–96 over the weekend in the first leg of their season-long, seven-game home stand. Boston bounced back on Monday with a 118–112 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans without Kristaps Porzingis (ankle), who’s questionable against Indiana after missing the last two games.
Tyrese Haliburton (hamstring) is reportedly set to return Tuesday against the top team in the NBA. He’s missed the Pacers last five games — the team has gone 3–2 in his absence during that stretch, having stayed afloat in large part due to the trade for Pascal Siakam.
This is the fifth and final head-to-head meeting this year between two of the highest-scoring teams in the Association. The series is tied 2–2 after Indiana’s 133–131 win at Gainbridge Fieldhouse earlier in the month — the previous three meetings were decided by double digits, including a 154–104 Celtics blowout back in November.
Spread: Pacers +7.5 (-118) | Celtics -7.5 (-105)
Moneyline: IND (+220) | BOS (-300)
Total: 244.5 — Over (-118) | Under (-110)
Game Info: Tuesday, Jan. 30 | 7:30 p.m. ET | TNT
Best Bet: Over 244.5 Points (-118)
Bold Prediction: Tyrese Haliburton Scores 25+ Points
Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports
The road has not been kind to the Pacers as of late. Coach Rick Carlisle’s team has dropped four of its last five outside of the Hoosier State and only one of those games was without Haliburton. And, of course, the last time Indiana played in Boston was their worst loss of the season.
The Pacers, who lead the league in both field goal percentage (50.7) and assists per game (31.1), are the only team with a better offensive rating than the Celtics. They have a host of capable scorers even beyond Haliburton and the recently acquired Siakam but their bottom-five defense puts a ceiling on this exciting young team.
Things have been marginally better on that side of the ball in January. Indiana ranks 10th in both offensive and defensive rating this month, a much more balanced split than its season-long numbers. It remains to be seen if those statistics are sustainable but Siakam’s arrival seems to have helped stop the bleeding. Another matchup with the Celtics, especially on the road, will be a good indicator of where this unit stands.
Boston’s 96-point output Saturday against Los Angeles matched a season-low. It was also only the second time the C’s were held under 100 points all year as the team shot just 36% from the field and 25% from beyond the arc. The very next game out against New Orleans, the team shot 50% from the field, 37% from deep and Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Jrue Holiday each had 20-plus points.
Only the Nuggets (6–1) have a better straight-up record on no rest than Boston (6–1). The Celtics have already swept two back-to-backs in January, one of which included a game against the Pacers on the second night.
Amazingly, Boston’s scoring average is actually slightly higher than its season-long mark on back-to-backs and the over/under is an even 4–4 in such games compared with its 23–24 mark for the year. Conversely, Indiana’s scoring average takes a sizable hit on no rest but its over/under record is still 4–5, a far cry from its 27–19–2 mark on the year, the fourth-highest hit rate in the league.
Don’t expect these high-flying offenses to take a night off, especially with the likelihood that both Haliburton and Porzingis are back on the floor. These teams combined to score more than 260 points when they played just a few weeks ago and they're responsible for the two highest-scoring outputs of the season.
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