NBA: Indiana Pacers vs. LA Lakers Preview, Odds, Prediction

The LA Lakers host the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night. This is a perfect opportunity for the purple and gold to earn back-to-back wins, and improve the pale atmosphere in the locker room. Half of the season is already gone, and the Lakers are sitting at .500, unsure about their playoff prospects. On top of that, the injuries are haunting the team from the City of Angels. On the other side, the Pacers are a major disappointment, and it appears that they plan to be very active during the trade window.

Preview

Indiana Pacers (15-29, TBA) lost the last four games and have just one win in the past 10 events. As mentioned before, they are by far one of the biggest disappointments of the year, and head coach Rick Carlisle, as well as the management, plan to have a busy trade window.

Right now, Indiana looks lost without any direction in its game, and most of the actions come down to one-on-one matchups. Though, it would be unfair not to mention that this crew had a lot of problems with injuries and absences, arguably the biggest in the league.

Their most recent loss was at Crypto.com, where they met with the Clippers and had one hell of a game, losing 139-133. Caris LeVert scored 26 points, had nine boards and four assists, Chris Duarte, one of the best rookies this year, had 24 off the bench with seven boards and six dimes, 10-for-14 from the field, while Sabonis posted a double-double with 19 points and 11 boards.

LA Lakers (22-22, TBA) snapped a three-game slide beating the Utah Jazz at home, 101-95. There wasn’t a better moment for Frank Vogel’s crew to record such a big victory. Without several players involved, the LAL proved to have the quality to compete with one of the best teams in the league right now.

LeBron was very good, scoring 25 points and delivering seven boards and assists each. The bench was highly inspired, scoring 44 points, three guys with double-digit stats. Stanley Johnson had 15, Malik Monk 14, and Talen Horton-Tucker 11.

Russell Westbrook added 15 buckets with 8 boards, but he moved the hosts with a thunderous dunk over Rudy Gobert. It is without a doubt one of the top five slams this season, and it caused madness in the stands.

Head to Head Games

The Pacers hosted the Lakers in late November and lost at home, 124-116, following an OT. LeBron was fantastic with 39 points, while Westbrook scored 20. Monk added 17 off the bench. Malcolm Brogdon, who isn’t playing, had a team-high for the Pacers, 28 buckets. Sabonis had 14 and 12 rebounds, while Duarte added 17 off the bench.

Prediction

We already said that the Lakers have a perfect chance to beat the Pacers and improve their situation. Both of these units have problems with injuries, but the LAL still possesses a higher quality than the upcoming rivals. Without further explaining and wasting your time, we suggest backing up the Lakers in this one. It would be terrible to erase the victory recorded against Utah by losing to the sorry Pacers.

Pick: Lakers win