Kings at Pacers
The Indiana Pacers’ struggles of late have mostly come on the road, and the team should be happy to return home after a rough two-game trip. The Pacers attempt to avoid a third straight setback when they host the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday.
Indiana is 5-6 in December but only one of those losses came at home, and that was to the Golden State Warriors on Dec. 8. The Pacers averaged 105.7 points in sweeping through a three-game homestand from Dec. 14-18, but had the offense go into a funk and put up an average of 88 points in losses at Memphis and San Antonio in the last two contests. The Kings are trying to earn a .500 road trip after dropping to 1-2 on the four-game trip with a 113-99 loss at Washington on Monday. Sacramento went into the fourth quarter tied with the Wizards but ran out of gas on the second night of a back-to-back.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, CSN California (Sacramento), FSN Indiana
ABOUT THE KINGS (11-17): Sacramento point guard Rajon Rondo rarely gets overshadowed by the opposing point guard when it comes to assists, but the league leader in that category could not keep pace with Washington’s John Wall on Monday. While Wall handed out a career-high 19 assists, Rondo managed just nine while scoring two points on 1-of-7 shooting in the loss. Rondo posted a points-assists double-double in each of the first two games of the road trip and is tied for the league lead with Golden State’s Draymond Green at four triple-doubles.
ABOUT THE PACERS (16-11): Indiana shot 39 percent from the field in a 96-84 loss at Memphis on Saturday and watched star Paul George get shut down in a 106-92 setback at San Antonio on Monday. The Pacers thrived in November when C.J. Miles and Paul George were both going strong from 3-point range but both have cooled off of late. George slumped to 1-of-5 from beyond the arc (and 1-of-14 from the field overall) in Monday’s loss while Miles went 1-of-10 from 3-point range at Memphis and San Antonio.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Kings C DeMarcus Cousins is shooting 37.9 percent from the field in nine games this month.
2. Indiana C Jordan Hill recorded a double-double in three of the last five games.
3. Sacramento took the two meetings last season by a total of six points.