Pacers at Cavaliers
The Indiana Pacers are beginning to find some chemistry with their new starting five and will try to build off their recent success during a five-game road trip, which begins Saturday at the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Pacers have won four of their last five and are 3-1 with the starting five of Victor Oladipo, Malcolm Brogdon, Domantas Sabonis, T.J. Warren and Myles Turner.
"Tonight was about being consistent and really establishing ourselves, especially that first unit," coach Nate McMillan told reporters after Thursday's 106-100 win over Portland at home. "That group has only played about 100 minutes together this season. That's about three games, so it was really about them working on an identity." The quintet combined for 81 points and 39 rebounds in the victory, which left sixth-place Indiana 1 1/2 games behind Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference. The Cavaliers won two straight and four of five before dropping a 116-104 decision at New Orleans on Friday. Collin Sexton tied a career high with 31 points while making a career-best six 3-pointers in 10 attempts in the setback.
TIME: 8 p.m. ET. TV: FS Indiana, FS Ohio
ABOUT THE PACERS (35-24): Oladipo missed the previous two games with a sore lower back before matching his season high with 15 points and setting a season high with seven rebounds in the win over Portland. "He's still working his way back and I thought he had a better third quarter," McMillan told the media Thursday of his former All-Star, who missed the first 47 games while recovering from a right knee/quadriceps injury. "I thought he had a couple attacks in transition, which is what we want to see. We want to advance and allow him to get to the basket. We had 15 fast-break points in the third quarter, so we got to the tempo we wanted to play and Vic was a big part of that." Sabonis had 20 points and 11 rebounds against Portland for his 45th double-double, tied for second in the NBA.
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (17-42): Sexton is shooting 49.1 percent from 3-point range this month as he continues to find his offensive game. "Just taking what the defense gave me," he told the media. "They kept going under. I gotta shoot it. My teammates, they've got confidence in me and they want me to shoot it. They gave me a few of them and they went under so I just had to make them pay. Tonight I had it going." Next on the scoring list Friday night was rookie Kevin Porter Jr., who registered 16 points off the bench.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Pacers SF Doug McDermott went 0-for-3 from 3-point range in each of his last two games and is shooting 31.3 percent from long distance in February after hitting 47.8 percent in January.
2. Cavaliers C Andre Drummond (calf) missed his second straight game Friday night.
3. The teams split two earlier meetings with the home team winning both times.