There are seven games of NBA action tipping off across the Friday Night slate. Helping to kick off the action, the Indiana Pacers will take on the Philadelphia 76ers.
The NBA Cup has stepped to the forefront in recent days, leading to some schedule shakeups. The Sixers have been off since Sunday and the Pacers last played on Monday, providing both teams plenty of rest. This is the first time these Eastern Conference foes have faced off this season.
Looking at the odds for tonight, the 76ers enter as 7.5-point favorites and hold -290 odds on the moneyline on DraftKings Sportsbook. The Pacers hold +235 odds of winning outright with the game total set at 224.5 points.
This article will look at a preview and prediction for the Friday night matchup.
Pacers at 76ers Preview
It has been a steep fall from last year’s NBA Finals run for the Pacers. They are 6-18 on the season, which slots them in 14th place in the Eastern Conference, but they do enter having won back-to-back games. Injuries have been a clear factor with Tyrese Haliburton headlining this as he continues to recover from his Achilles tear. Indiana is 13-11 against the spread this season, and the under has cashed in 15 of their 24 games.
Pascal Siakam headlines the team’s production and has taken on additional responsibility this season. The three-time All-Star is averaging 24.5 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 4.1 assists on the season. Bennedict Mathurin battled some injury issues in the early stages, but he is averaging 21.5 points and 5.6 rebounds in the 13 games he has played. Andrew Nembhard has primarily run the offense, posting averages of 17.9 points and 6.6 assists. Jay Huff leads the NBA at 2.5 blocks per game, along with 7.7 points and 3.7 rebounds, while Jarace Walker and T.J. McConnell have each played important roles. In addition to Haliburton, Ben Sheppard, Aaron Nesmith, Obi Topin, and Kam Jones remain out, while Quenton Jackson has been upgraded to questionable after missing the previous 17 games with a hamstring injury.
Indiana built an identity based on their speed of play and team basketball, but rank 13th in the league in pace currently. They are scoring just 111.2 points per game, which ranks 28th in the NBA, and rank 27th in offensive rating. The Pacers are dead last in field goal percentage, 29th in three-point percentage, and last in assists per game. Defensively, opponents are scoring 118.8 points per game, which ranks 24th. They are 19th in defensive rating, 20th in opponents’ field goal percentage, and second in opponents’ three-point percentage.
Injuries have been a familiar storyline for the Philadelphia 76ers as well. They continue to balance the availability issues of Joel Embiid and Paul George, but both max players are expected to be active tonight. The Sixers hold a 13-10 record on the season, which slots them at sixth place in the Eastern Conference. Philadelphia is 13-10 against the spread, and the under has cashed in 12 of their 23 games.
Tyrese Maxey has taken his game to new heights this season, leading the NBA with 39.9 minutes per game and averaging 31.5 points, 7.2 assists, and 4.7 rebounds. Across the nine games that Joel Embiid has played, he is averaging 18.2 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 3.0 assists. Paul George has suited up for eight games this year, posting averages of 14.1 points and 5.0 rebounds. Third-overall pick VJ Edgecombe has made a strong impact with 14.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 4.0 assists, while Quentin Grimes has been one of the best scorers off the bench this season at 16.5 points per game. Andre Drummond, Jared McCain, and Dominick Barlow each make strong impacts while Kelly Oubre Jr. and Trendon Watford remain sidelined with injury. Tyrese Maxey has been downgraded to questionable with an illness. He has not missed a game yet this season.
The Sixers are scoring 116.9 points per game, which ranks 17th, and are 16th in offensive rating. They rank 16th in pace, 23rd in field goal percentage, and 15th in three-point percentage. Defensively, opponents are scoring 116.1 points per game, which ranks 16th, and the Sixers rank 14th in defensive rating. They rank 11th in opponents’ field goal percentage and hold teams to the eighth-worst three-point percentage.
Pacers at 76ers Prediction, Best Bet
The Sixers cooled off after a strong start to the season and there is a limited sample size of the team at full strength. Joel Embiid, Paul George, and Tyrese Maxey have shared the floor together just twice this season. Both resulted in losses, coming at the hands of the Hawks and Lakers. But the outlook should be much different against this Pacers team.
Rest is as valuable to this Sixers team as any roster in the league, and being off since Sunday is a big deal for them. Indiana has plenty of injury issues in their own right, but are not receiving the same sort of short-term boost. The Pacers have struggles on both sides of the ball and do not have enough quality offensive creators that their style of play commands.
Expect this to be a meaningful matchup for the Sixers with some practice time logged at full strength over the past few days. It has been a mixed bag of results for Embiid when he has been on the floor this year, while George has mostly looked like himself. Whatever percentage they are at, they still will cause some problems for this Pacers defense. Pascal Siakam has been great this season, and the team competes with tenacity, but the talent gap is evident between these two rosters. Indiana is coming off back-to-back wins, but these came against the Bulls and Kings, who are each self-imploding in their own right.
Sometimes lost in the star-dominated conversation is that the Sixers have assembled one of the deepest rosters in the league. Count on Edgecombe and Grimes to continue providing sparks, and for this to be a great chance for the Sixers to play like the team they are designed to be. In addition, both these teams love to get out in transition and have struggled defensively. Expect this to be a high-paced matchup in which the Sixers manage to push the scoring to a level that the Pacers cannot match.
