Fresh off his second consecutive All-Star Game MVP performance, Russell Westbrook looks to guide the Thunder to victory opening the post-break portion of their schedule. OKC goes for its 10th straight home win when the Pacers visit for a nationally televised game.
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LOOK AHEAD
In their final game before the All-Star break, the Pacers showed little emotion and energy in their 117-95 home loss to the Hornets. They looked more like a collection of players who had already started their week-long vacation. The display prompted Monta Ellis to call a closed-door meeting. Little is known about what was said, however, reports say Ellis urged his teammates to take more responsibility for the rest of the season. We’ll quickly see how the Pacers respond as they open the post-break portion of their schedule with three road games in four nights. Following their matchup with OKC, the Pacers head to Florida for games with the Magic on Sunday and the Heat on Monday.
The Thunder rolled into the All-Star break winning eight of 10 games and doing so behind an impressive offensive showing. They averaged 115.5 points per game in that stretch and are the second-highest scoring team in the league, behind only the Golden State Warriors, at 109.9 points per game. OKC has a tough stretch of games to open the second part of its schedule, hosting Cleveland and Golden State with stops at Dallas, the Clippers and Golden State all coming in the next two weeks.
INJURIES
The only Indy player not to attend the post-game players meeting was Jordan Hill, who left the arena with a splint over his right ring finger. He dislocated the digit during the second quarter of the Hornets game and is questionable to play when the Pacers open the second half of their schedule.
Thunder guard Andre Roberson started some individual workouts as part of his rehab from a right knee sprain. It’s unlikely he’ll be ready in time for OKC’s first post-break game, but he is on schedule to return before the end of the month.
KEY MATCHUP
It doesn’t matter who the Thunder play, Russell Westbrook always seems to have an advantage. And he’s been scary good in February, putting up ridiculous numbers that led him to another All-Star Game MVP award. So far in the month, Westbrook is averaging a triple-double with 24.0 points, 11.0 assists and 10.4 rebounds per game. Other than Oscar Robertson, who averaged a triple-double for the entire 1961-62 season, Westbrook has a chance to be the only other player in NBA history to average a triple-double for an entire month. In his final game before the break, Westbrook just missed his third triple-double in five games by posting 23 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds while playing seven fewer minutes than his season average. That’s how good he is. Westbrook has recorded eight triple-double games this season with seven of them coming on his home floor.
ANALYSIS AND ODDS PREDICTION
The Pacers went through a transformation that saw coach Frank Vogel scrap his small-ball style and return to a smash-mouth brand of basketball. Rookie Myles Turner was inserted into the starting lineup alongside Ian Mahinmi with Paul George moving to his comfortable three spot. The change has ignited George, who averaged 26 points over the last four games with a pair of 30-point outings. Turner has taken to his new starting role and it’s a system the Pacers will likely stick with. However, there are times when the Pacers forget to play defense. George and Monta Ellis aren’t winning hardware for their play on the defensive end of the court and Turner is slow to get out of the paint. The Thunder like to score and do it in a variety of ways, too many for Indy to defend successfully.
Oklahoma City 111, Indiana 103
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