Pacers at Suns
The Indiana Pacers aim to recover from their worst beating of the season when they visit the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday. Indiana received a 118-88 drubbing by the Utah Jazz on Monday and the one-sided setback halted a five-game winning streak.
The Pacers opened a five-game road trip with an impressive 115-107 win over the Denver Nuggets on Sunday but had very little in the tank against the Jazz. "Just one of those nights," center Myles Turner said afterward. "Some people call it a schedule loss, but I think that they came out and they moved the ball very well, forced our defense to work and we weren’t hitting shots, so it’s a recipe for disaster." The Suns had won four of five games - including a solid road victory over the Boston Celtics - before suffering a 120-118 home loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Monday. Phoenix overcame a 20-point deficit against the Spurs and had a chance to win the contest but star guard Devin Booker's 34-foot, 3-pointer was off the mark with two seconds remaining.
TIME: 9 p.m. ET. TV: FS Indiana, FS Arizona
ABOUT THE PACERS (28-16): Indiana's worst defeat had been a 28-point loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Dec. 22 but the team was outscored 62-44 in the second half by Utah and wasn't in the game despite a season-best 15 steals. "In a game like this, you just learn from it and then you flush it and move on to the next game whether you played good or not," guard Jeremy Lamb told reporters afterward. Guard Malcolm Brogdon (five points, 2-of-11 shooting) and backup small forward Doug McDermott (eight points, 3-of-12) were among the players who shot poorly.
ABOUT THE SUNS (18-25): Booker made 13-of-23 shots while scoring 37 points against San Antonio to follow up two 39-point efforts over the previous three games and is averaging 36 points during the stretch. Small forward Kelly Oubre Jr. (concussion) was back after a two-game absence and he recorded 15 points and eight rebounds in a contest in which Phoenix couldn't quite overcome the big deficit. "The guys in our group fight until the end and I'm proud of that," Phoenix coach Monty Williams told reporters. "That's a DNA that we're about every day."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Pacers won the past five meetings and seven of the last eight.
2. Phoenix PF-C Aron Baynes (hip) hopes to return after a one-game absence.
3. Indiana SF T.J. Warren scored four points against the Jazz after averaging 25 over the previous two games.