Wizards at Pacers
The Indiana Pacers found their form and avoided a third straight loss by fending off the Brooklyn Nets 114-106 on Friday behind All-Star guard Victor Oladipo. The Pacers will try to win for the ninth time in 11 games when they host the Washington Wizards on Sunday.
Indiana averaged 93.5 points in losses to Cleveland and at Toronto before shooting 53.7 percent from the floor in the win at Brooklyn to split a two-game trip. "We didn't want to drop three straight and was able to win here on the road against a scrappy Brooklyn team that’s been playing really well," Pacers head coach Nate McMillan told reporters. "They played well tonight. Our guys, for 48 minutes, hung in there." Indiana gets the benefit on Sunday of playing against a Wizards squad traveling for a back-to-back after fighting through three overtimes to earn a 149-146 victory over the Phoenix Suns on Saturday. Shooting guard Bradley Beal scored 10 of his 40 points in the third overtime and recorded his first career triple-double in the victory.
TV: 5 p.m. ET, NBCS Washington, FS Indiana
ABOUT THE WIZARDS (13-20): All-Star John Wall sat out on Saturday due to an illness and is day-to-day, and that left Beal to assume the play-making role against the Suns. Beal responded with a career-high 15 assists to go with his 40 points and 11 rebounds in the triple-double as Washington won for the second time in its last eight games. Several of Beal's assists went to center Thomas Bryant, who scored a career-high 31 points on 14-of-14 shooting and grabbed 13 rebounds.
ABOUT THE PACERS (21-12): Oladipo combined to go 13-of-34 from the floor in the two losses, including 1-of-8 from beyond the arc, but was 8-of-14 (5-of-9 from 3-point range) en route to 26 points in Friday's triumph. Oladipo added nine rebounds, six assists and a pair of steals to his line in the win, and teammates were noting his change in style. "It's not just playing with an edge, but being smart about it at the same time," Oladipo told reporters. "That’s what I felt I did different today from the last two games. I just know at the end of the day I've got to start finishing stronger, and it turned out good for us."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Pacers C Myles Turner recorded a double-double in each of the last three games.
2. Wizards SF Trevor Ariza is 6-of-26 from 3-point range in three games since arriving in a trade from Phoenix.
3. Indiana earned a 109-101 home win over Washington on Dec. 10 behind 10 points and 17 assists from PG Darren Collison.