Pacers at Mavericks
The Indiana Pacers are coming off their most impressive win of the season and will try to carry that momentum forward as they attempt to climb the standings in the Eastern Conference. The Dallas Mavericks, who host the Pacers on Saturday, are trending in the opposite direction with four straight losses and the schedule is not getting any easier.
Three of Dallas’ last four losses have come at home, and two came against sub-.500 teams from the Western Conference, to drop the team into seventh place in the West heading into the weekend. “We need to look at ourselves in the mirror, see what's missing, what we can do better for each other and stay together," center Zaza Pachulia told reporters. "It's not the right time to fragment and go the other way. We are professionals. We have to take it serious." The Mavericks don’t get much of a break with the arrival of the Pacers, who knocked off the San Antonio Spurs 99-91 at home on Monday and sit in seventh place in the East with the arrow pointed up. “It kind of like strengthens our belief in each other and our confidence level,” Indiana center Ian Mahinmi told reporters. “We’ve had a good team all year, and we can beat anybody when we execute and when we play hard like we did (on Monday).”
TV: 2 p.m. ET, FSN Indiana, FSN Southwest (Dallas)
ABOUT THE PACERS (34-30): Indiana is in a tight huddle of teams between No. 5 and No. 9 in the East and is trying to move up through its efforts on the defensive end. The Pacers held the Spurs to 35.4 percent from the field, including 4-of-28 from 3-point range, in Monday’s win and held opponents under the century mark in each of their last three victories. “You have to feel good about beating the Spurs,” Indiana coach Frank Vogel told reporters. “That’s a heck of a team. But all you have to do is look at the standings to know one loss can knock you down to nine.”
ABOUT THE MAVERICKS (33-32): Dallas is looking in its rearview mirror at the ninth-place Utah Jazz and has little room for error during a stretch of schedule that will see them face winning teams in each of the next seven games, including a trip to East-leading Cleveland and a pair of games (home and away) against the NBA-best Golden State Warriors. “Good," slumping shooting guard Wesley Matthews told ESPN.com about the difficult schedule. "Maybe it'll make us pick our level of play up to where it should be. We've got to get off this skid. We've got to stop the bleeding."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Pacers SF C.J. Miles (calf) has missed the last nine games but is participating in practice this week and could return on Saturday.
2. Matthews is 6-of-27 from 3-point range in the last five games.
3. Indiana has taken three straight in the series, including a 107-81 home victory on Dec. 16.