Inside The Heat

No Kyrie Irving And Kevin Durant Tonight Gives Indiana Pacers An Easier Road Ahead Of Facing Miami Heat Monday

Both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant are resting tonight in Indianapolis
Shandel Richardson|
No Kyrie Irving And Kevin Durant Tonight Gives Indiana Pacers An Easier Road Ahead Of Facing Miami Heat Monday
No Kyrie Irving And Kevin Durant Tonight Gives Indiana Pacers An Easier Road Ahead Of Facing Miami Heat Monday

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It's not that the Indiana Pacers will have an off day when they face the Brooklyn Nets tonight. 

But they will have a much easier time with the Brooklyn Nets without eight players, including Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons. All are listed as out for injury management. In other words, they are resting. To be fair, the Nets are on the second night of a back-to-back. Irving and Durant each had 30-point games Friday against the Atlanta Hawks. 

The Nets will field a makeshift roster against the Pacers. How does this affect the Miami Heat? The Pacers and Heat meet Monday in Indianapolis. 

If the Pacers win big, as expected, they could have a little extra rest entering their game against the Heat. The same could hold true for the Heat, who are playing the lowly San Antonio Spurs (7-18) Sunday night in Miami. 

The Nets sitting so many players will almost certainly raise the eyebrows of fans around the NBA. The league has often been criticized for teams using games to rest players when fans pay good money to watch their favorite stars. 

The Nets situation is reminiscent of when Spurs coach Gregg Popovich was fined $250,000 for resting Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker for their nationally-televised game against the LeBron James-led Heat in 2012. It matched the league's best two teams, with the Heat and Spurs facing later that season in the Finals and in 2014.

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Shandel Richardson covers the Miami Heat for Inside The Heat.

TWITTER: @ShandelRich

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Shandel Richardson
SHANDEL RICHARDSON

Shandel has covered the NBA since 2010, with previous stops at The Athletic and South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He has covered six NBA Finals, one Super Bowl, the NCAA basketball tournament. He has also been a beat writer for the Miami Hurricanes and contributed on every major beat in South Florida since 2003, including the Miami Dolphins and Miami Marlins. He can also be read in the Sportsbook Review for gambling coverage from around the NBA. A native of Bloomington, Illinois, Shandel attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He's also worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Kansas City Star. TWITTER: @ShandelRich EMAIL: shandelrich@gmail.com You can subscribe to our YouTube channel here Follow all of our Miami Heat coverage on Facebook here

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