As they fight to avoid the play-in tournament, the Indiana Pacers need scoring and victories by whatever means possible.
Pascal Siakam’s steady hand has fueled Indiana lately. He has scored at least 25 points in the first four games of the team’s five-game road trip, helping the Pacers go 3-1 in that span.
As the Pacers aim to close the trip with more success Wednesday at the Chicago Bulls, they’ll need Siakam to maintain the outlook that helped him to 31 points in Monday’s 133-116 win at the Los Angeles Clippers.
Indiana (41-32) stood in sixth place in the East entering Tuesday. The Nos. 7-10 seeds compete in the play-in tournament.
The Bulls (34-38) are ninth in the conference, 1 1/2 games clear of the Atlanta Hawks in the No. 10 spot.
Both the Bulls and Pacers know they’ll need to be aggressive down the stretch to maintain their respective positions in the postseason race.
Indiana’s Myles Turner put that into practice Monday. After slumping to 4-for-15 3-point shooting in his four games before arriving in Los Angeles, he was 4-of-6 from deep against both the Lakers and Clippers.
Chicago will try to stop a three-game losing streak by claiming the season series with Indiana.
The teams split the first two meetings before the Bulls earned a 132-129 overtime road victory against the Pacers on March 13 behind 46 points from DeMar DeRozan. The fourth quarter featured 12 lead changes.
The victory capped a run of four wins in six games for the Bulls, who since have lost four of six.
Chicago’s skid continued with Monday’s 107-105 home loss to the Washington Wizards, who have the second-fewest wins in the NBA. Washington was without several key contributors, including four starters, leaving the Bulls to bemoan a missed opportunity.
DeRozan has scored at least 20 points in five straight games against Indiana. The Bulls have won two of the past three season series against the Pacers.
