Pistons at Pacers
The Indiana Pacers are winners of three straight and 10 of 12 and showed off how strong they can be offensively while rushing past the Atlanta Hawks 129-121 on Wednesday. The Pacers will try to push the winning streak to four in a row at the expense of a struggling division foe when they host the Detroit Pistons on Friday.
Indiana placed eight scorers in double figures and handed out 35 assists on 46 made field goals while shooting 55.4 percent from the floor and scoring over 30 points in each quarter at Atlanta. "When guys are open you have to get them the ball," Pacers coach Nate McMillan told reporters. "You shoot a better percentage when you move the ball and you have your feet set and that's what we continue to express to our guys. It was just good ball movement tonight. Some of our guys finally found their rhythm tonight with that ball movement and it's tough to guard when you are moving the ball like that." The Pistons have not won back-to-back games since a five-game streak came to an end on Dec. 3 but have a chance on Friday after earning a 106-95 home victory over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday that brought the team back to .500. "I will commend our guys on this. It was one of those 'must wins' for morale, for steadying the ship, and guys came in and got it done," Detroit coach Dwane Casey told reporters. "It wasn’t pretty and there were a lot of teaching moments in that fourth quarter."
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FS Detroit, FS Indiana
ABOUT THE PISTONS (16-16): Detroit committed 12 of its 24 turnovers in the fourth quarter on Wednesday and nearly squandered a 22-point lead. "The bigger issue is giving up a 22-point lead," star forward Blake Griffin, who scored a game-high 23 points, told reporters. "It's going to happen, so, yes, it's nice to be able to close it out and get stops when you need to. But I think it was the way that it happened." Casey called the fourth-quarter turnovers "12 teaching moments" as his team gets set for a four-game road trip that will take them through Orlando, Milwaukee and Memphis after Indiana.
ABOUT THE PACERS (23-12): Swingman Tyreke Evans (knee) returned from a two-game absence on Wednesday and showed no rust while piling up 19 points in as many minutes and shooting 7-of-9 from the floor, including 4-of-4 from beyond the arc. "I thought he was aggressive tonight making plays, made some shots, and defensively he was pretty solid," McMillan told reporters of Evans. "We want our guys to be aggressive when they are out there, and I thought Tyreke did a good job of attacking tonight." Domantas Sabonis scored 19 points off the bench on Wednesday as well to extend his string of double-digit scoring efforts to 10 straight contests.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Pacers SG Victor Oladipo is 9-of-26 from the floor over the last two games but handed out 16 assists in that span.
2. Pistons C Andre Drummond recorded a double-double in each of the last 10 games.
3. Detroit took three of the four meetings last season, but the teams are seeing each other for the first time since Dec. 26, 2017.