LA Clippers: Team looks for third straight versus tough Pacers team

The LA Clippers look to take down a resilient Indiana Pacers squad who are on the second night of a back-to-back at Staples Center Tuesday night.

Fresh off of a close loss in Portland, the Indiana Pacers will be coming to town to take on your LA Clippers. The Pacers are currently 4th in the Eastern Conference standings at 44-27 and are locked into a tight race for playoff positioning, much like the Clippers themselves. The Clips will no doubt have their hands full as both teams have something to play for tonight.

As many fans will certainly remember, the last time these two teams matched up, the Clippers had only nine players available to them after all of the trade deadline insanity, which saw them turn over a third of their roster. There was even a bat that got loose and terrorized the Bankers Life Fieldhouse while the Pacers cruised to an easy 116-92 victory against the shorthanded Clips.

The matchup at Staples Center will likely be much more competitive as the teams clash with both of their squads at nearly full strength. The only exclusions tonight will be that of Victor Oladipo (knee) and Luc Mbah a Moute (knee).

While the absence of Oladipo is absolutely significant, this Pacers team has shown time and time again that they aren’t a one-man show. Since Oladipo went down earlier in the season, the Pacers have not only been able to tread water, but have been taking down legitimately good teams and themselves have remained competitive. Hence their holding onto the 4th seed in the East. That is to say, the Clippers will need to be on top of their game tonight, Oladipo or not.

The Pacers feature a relatively balanced scoring attack, but their leading scorer, and one of the main defensive focuses for the Clippers, is forward Bojan Bogdanovic. The big Croatian (fellow countryman of Clippers center Ivica Zubac) currently averaging 17.8 points per game while shooting 41.8% from three. Certainly nothing to sneeze at and a guy whose impact the Clippers would like to limit.

Another area of focus for the Clippers defense will be the versatile Pacers big men, Myles Turner and Thaddeus Young. Both players are big-bodied and dynamic at their positions, with the ability to stretch the floor. Not to mention, they’re monsters on the boards, grabbing 7 and 6.5 rebounds per game, respectively. The Clippers’ bigs will need to be very active if they want to curtail the impact of those two on either end of the floor.

Another, more familiar, threat to the Clippers comes in the form of trade deadline acquisition Wesley Matthews. Matthews, after being bought out by the Knicks, has slotted nicely into the Pacers’ vacant wing position, which had been filled by Victor Oladipo before he became injured. Matthews is currently chipping in with 12.5 points per game on 40.4% from deep. Although he hasn’t been quite as effective when matching up against the Clippers during the 2018-19 season, Matthews absolutely has it in him to get hot and start hitting ridiculous shots that could tip things in Indiana’s favor.

As stated above, the Pacers’ scoring is about as balanced as they come and their defense is just as solid. For the Clippers to pull this one out, they’ll need to play with their usual chippiness for a full 48 minutes. Let down their guard for even a moment and they could wind up with a less than ideal result.

A fun sub-plot to keep an eye on in tonight’s game will also be Domantas Sabonis and Lou Williams‘ battle for the 2019 Sixth Man of The Year award. While Lou has the award all but locked up at this point, Sabonis has represented his greatest competition for the award, outside of his own teammate Montrezl Harrell. Watching them each duke it out and attempt to lay claim to the award should be a good time for everyone (even though it basically already has Lou’s name on it).

Keys to winning this game for the Clippers will be keeping the Pacers’ big men off of the glass, driving their lethal shooters off off the three point line, spreading out the Pacers’ defense, and simply out-working an opposing team that’s on the second night of a back-to-back.

The game will air at 7:30pm PST on Fox Sports Prime Ticket and NBATV.