Host

Washington Wizards  (4-25)

The Indiana Pacers look to continue their winning ways against the Washington Wizards.  Already winners of the past two games, the Pacers should be able to put away the Wizards in tonight’s game with as well as they’ve been playing.  George Hill will be a game time decision, but if D.J. Augustin plays as inspired as he did on Monday, the Pacers should be able to play without him.

Roy Hibbert should be able to bounce back from his recent sub par play as he’s played well against the Wizards.  Hibbert had 20 points last time out against them.  David West had a strong effort as well with his 30 points.  If the Pacers get that type of production, no reason to believe they won’t win this game.

The Wizards are without their star power in John Wall, but Bradley Beal has stepped up as much as he can.  But is that enough to overcome the defensive prowess of the Pacers.  For the Pacers to win this game, they need that defensive effort they brought in the fourth quarter in Monday’s win.  Those times of defense when they’ve allowed teams under double figures in a quarter.  The Wizards only get around 90 points a game, which is what the Pacers are allowing. I expect a great effort from the Pacers tonight, and what should be an easy win to set up the next four games which is going against tougher teams like the Heat, Celtics, Bucks, and Knicks.  That’s going to be the real test to see where the Pacers are heading.  We’ll call tonight a tune up game for that stretch.

Washington Wizards  (0-9)  89

Thank you, David West and Roy Hibbert.

More specifically, a special thanks to Roy Hibbert for finally showing up to play. The Indiana Pacers frontcourt duo, expected to be one of the better tandems in the league, combined for 50 points in a 96-89 Pacers victory over the Washington Wizards on Monday night. It was their second win in three games.

Not only did West and Hibbert score at will, they shot a blistering 18-24 (75%) from the field, 14-15 (93%) from the charity stripe, pulled down 20 rebounds and had eight blocked shots. More importantly, Hibbert found his groove in the low post. He contributed his best effort, by far, on both ends of the floor for Indiana.

Dominating. Impressive. Whatever word you want to use to describe their efforts, the two carried the Indiana Pacers throughout the game. West and Hibbert outscored Washington’s starters 50-31 and outrebounded them 20-13.

The Pacers jumped out to a 28-13 advantage after the first quarter, and led by nine at the half. Indiana then regained a double-figure lead in the third period, before the Wizards closed strong and only trailed the Pacers by four going into the final 12 minutes.

It looked as though Washington was going to thrive with the momentum, and then West, the veteran, took over. He scored 13 of his 30 points down the stretch, helping the Pacers take control of the game when it counted.

Rookie Bradley Beal came off the bench to score a team-high 18 points for the Wizards. Beal’s output was not enough, however, to clinch the first win of the season for Washington as they fell to 0-9 on the young season. They are the only winless team remaining in the NBA.

The Indiana Pacers improved to 5-7 and have two games at home before heading out west for a four-game road trip.