Mavericks at Pacers
The Indiana Pacers went from one extreme to the other in their last two games and will try to find some consistency when they host the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday. The Pacers are having little trouble breaking apart inferior opponents but tend to struggle against the better teams in the Eastern Conference.
Indiana's last three losses are to the Toronto Raptors, Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers by an average of 22.3 points but sandwiched in between are easy wins over the Cleveland Cavaliers, New York Knicks and Phoenix Suns. The Pacers had no trouble breezing to a 131-97 triumph over Phoenix on Tuesday but looked like a different team while struggling at home two nights later in a 120-96 setback to the 76ers, prompting star guard Victor Oladipo to tell reporters, "They just kicked our (butt) every which way from start to finish." The Mavericks aren't in the same category as the Knicks, Cavaliers and Suns but sit four games under .500 as they get set for a two-game road trip at Indiana and Milwaukee. "We have two tough road games coming up, and the difference between winning and losing is taking care of the ball, rebounding and loose balls, because they're all possession things," Dallas coach Rick Carlisle told reporters. "And we've got to be tight with the game plan."
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FS Southwest (Dallas), FS Indiana
ABOUT THE MAVERICKS (20-24): Dallas dropped its last two games by a total of nine points against Western Conference-powers Golden State and San Antonio. The Mavericks held a 19-point lead over the Spurs in the first quarter on Wednesday and were up 11 at halftime before squandering the lead and struggling in a tight game down the stretch. "We knew they were going to keep playing hard - that's what they do," Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki told reporters. "We knew they were going to somehow crawl back in it. Just down the stretch a couple of too many mistakes, a couple of turnovers, we missed a couple of good looks, we left too many shooters in the fourth quarter."
ABOUT THE PACERS (29-15): Indiana made nine 3-pointers to Philadelphia's 18 on Thursday and shot 40.2 percent from the floor in the setback. "From start to finish, they ran their stuff, they executed, they screened, they passed and they scored," Oladipo told reporters. "Their big dogs were big today. We didn't have a good game. Obviously, it's just one game but it should be a wake-up call for us, by helping us realize that we have to be better." The outlier for Indiana was power forward Thaddeus Young, who scored a season-high 27 points on 11-of-17 shooting in the loss.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Mavericks rookie SF Luka Doncic is averaging 27.4 points, seven rebounds and 6.4 assists over the last five games.
2. Oladipo is 8-of-31 from the floor in the last two contests.
3. Dallas took the last three in the series, including a 98-94 win at Indiana last season.