Indiana Pacers vs Brooklyn Nets

An NBA Eastern Conference match up this Wednesday will have the Brooklyn Nets hosting Indiana Pacers. Both sides have a 9-13 record for the season with Nets at the 10th position in the Eastern conference and Pacers at the ninth.
If these teams have identical records, there will be quite different feelings among fans of these teams. This season the Nets have actually done better than what was expected while the Pacers team has not done as well as expected.

It seems like the back to back upset against the Warriors and Suns were just flukes which the nets are now proving are a fluke. They fell to the Magic in a home doubleheader which was succeeded by a 128-102 blowout on the road in Monday.

Axe facing them is the Pacers who are also eyeing a bounce back; they come into this game on the back of three straight losses. While Indiana achieved what many teams can only dream of last season by making the Eastern Conference Finals, more was anticipated this season.

Their last trip on the floor was last night where they were beaten 122-111 by the Toronto Raptors in their arena. It was the latest of the series of Pacers’ away matches miseries this season since they have dropped 10 of the 12 outings.
The Nets have been on a three-gaming skid now and will have their leading scorer, Cam Thomas, sit out the remainder of the game due to left knee soreness, forward Zaire Williams deal with a left knee strain, and backup center Noah Clowney with a left ankle sprain. Guard, Ben Simmons and wings Dorian Finney-Smith , Cameron Johnson are listed as questionable. The last three games the Nets have not recorded more than twenty two in points. That number will likely be passed against the Pacers, but with Tyrese Haliburton getting his first road shooting performance (30 points on Tuesday), the Pacers should be able to put enough points on the board to win.

Under JB Bickerstaff, the defensive identity has been solidified; yet, the Bucks game was a total failure. Milwaukee was on fire from the first three, but letting them shoot twenty-three wide-open looks only makes the situation worse.

If you look at Boston like that, they'll burn you. The Celtics are on track to post the league's highest three-point shooting percentage ever. The team is led by the usual suspects, Derrick White, Jayson Tatum, and Jaylen Brown, among others, while Payton Pritchard has emerged as a significant player, ranking second on the Celtics with 78 3-pointers (5th in the NBA).

With 79 three-pointers, Malik Beasley leads the Pistons in 3-point shooting, closely behind Tatum's 83 and White's 77. Detroit is depending on Beasley, but math is math. If you don't make enough *quality* threes, the math makes it almost impossible to compete with Boston. Detroit has made 40+ three-pointers three times this season; all three games ended in losses, and their offense never scored more than 116.7 points.