Pacers lead Boston by two games with eight to play
By TYLER SMITH (@TylerSmith_ISL)
ISL Editor
INDIANAPOLIS — There’s no place like home.
After an 0-4 road trip, the Indiana Pacers returned to Indianapolis to give some home-cooking to the Denver Nuggets, winning by a final score of 124-88.
The Pacers are now 15-4 at home this season in games without Victor Oladipo. They are just 6-14 without their star in road games.
With that in mind, the Pacers would love to earn home-court advantage in the 1st round of the playoffs. With eight games to play, they have a two-game lead over the Boston Celtics, who have dropped four straight games themselves. Here are the remaining schedules for each team.
Indiana-
Boston-
The tie-breaker situation is still up in the air, depending on the remaining head-to-head match-ups. If they split those two games, the next tie-breaker is conference record. The Pacers are currently 30-15 against the East, while the Celtics are 29-15. Since the Celtics have nothing but Eastern Conference games remaining, they would have to earn a better conference record if they were to catch Indiana in the standings.
Which means: The Pacers will need to either A.) Win both games against Boston should they tie in the standings, or B.) Finish the season with a better record than Boston to get home-court advantage.
Myles Turner said he’s not scoreboard watching….. yet.
“If somebody tells me the scores, fine,” Turner said. “But I’m not going to go fishing for it. We’re still just taking it one game at a time.”
After losing Victor Oladipo for the season, Pacer fans should be excited that home-court advantage is still a legit possibility. It will be interesting to see what the next few weeks bring for the blue and gold.
