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The Pacers play an Easter Sunday day game in Los Angeles when they face the Clippers at STAPLES Center.
The rare 12:30 PT/3:30 ET tip time is just one of the issues the Pacers face as they try to win their fifth consecutive game. Human nature is a beast and it will be a bear on the Pacers against a Clippers team that remains motivated to make the playoffs, currently sitting two games out of the postseason.
In addition to feeling good, dare I say content, after winning four straight, the Pacers have to overcome two full off days in one of the great entertainment cities in the world. Hard to avoid the laid-back, SoCal state of mind with the perfect temps and so many options as an NBA player in the city.
After trading Blake Griffin to Detroit, the Clippers enjoyed a bit of the magic the Pacers have played with this season to maintain pace in the Western Conference playoff race. But a recent four-game losing streak slowed the Clips roll, as they’ve lost six of their last ten games, DeAndre Jordan remains a double-double monster in the middle for the Clippers.
The rebounding struggles for the Pacers will be tested as they deal with Jordan and Tobias Harris who scored 30 points on the Pacers earlier in the year when he was with the Pistons.
The Pacers beat the Clips at the Fieldhouse on Mar. 23, 109-104. The roller-coaster game ended with the Pacers finishing strong for the win after giving up an earlier 18-point lead. Human nature kicked in after the Pacers took the big, third-quarter lead and they were able overcome. We’ll see if they can deny human nature’s nasty side effects once again today.
On the injury front, the Pacers list Trevor Booker (ankle) as questionable.
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Pacers (45-31) at Clippers (41-35) - 3:30 PM EDT at STAPLES Center
TV: Fox Sports Indiana
Radio: 107.5 FM/AM 1070 The Fan
Projected starting lineups
Pacers: Darren Collison (PG), Victor Oladipo (SG), Bojan Bogdanovic (SF), Thaddeus Young (PF), Myles Turner (C)
Clippers: Austin Rivers (PG), Ty Wallace (SG), Wes Johnson (SF), Tobias Harris (PF), DeAndre Jordan (C)