Indiana Pacers hoping to see Washington Wizards defeat Houston Rockets on Sunday
Sunday is the final day of the 2022-23 NBA regular season, and it's set up to be an important one for the Indiana Pacers.
While most of the playoff field is set, all but four teams in the NBA are playing for either seeding, draft lottery standings, or draft positioning on the final day. It's bound to be a hectic Sunday with 15 games being played.
The Pacers battle the Knicks in their finale, and draft lottery positioning is at stake for Indiana, though they may want to close out the season on a high note. New York, meanwhile, is hoping to both maintain their momentum heading into the playoffs while thinking about draft positioning themselves. They could move down one pick in the draft with a win, though the Sacramento Kings would also have to lose today.
Every game has implications similar to that around the league, and the results all impact each other. The Pacers, for instance, are interested in the result of seven or so other games around the league today. Certain results would benefit their NBA Draft outlook.
The most important game for the Pacers, beyond their own, is being played in the Nation's Capital. The Washington Wizards host the Houston Rockets, and Indiana will hope to see a Wizards win.
For the Pacers, this game is similar in impact to the battle that took place between the Portland Trail Blazers and San Antonio Spurs earlier this week. In that game, the Pacers would have bennefitted in the Draft Lottery standings had Portland won, but their second round outlook would have improved with a San Antonio win. It was a unique circumstance for the blue and gold, who watched as the Spurs pulled off a fourth quarter comeback to win by two.
Today's Washington-Houston tilt is similar, but this time, Indiana cares more about a specific result — they want the Wizards to win.
Washington is 35-46, one game better than Indiana in the inverse standings. A win by the Wizards would make it impossible for the Pacers to match their record, and that would lock Indiana into top-seven lottery odds for the upcoming draft. If the Wizards lose, it's still possible that a Pacers win today would push them down to eighth in the lottery, pending the result of a random drawing.
On the flip side, Indiana also owns Houston's second-round draft pick, but only if it lands at 31 or 32. It's impossible for it to be 31, but it could still be 32 depending on results today.
The Rockets are tied with the Spurs for the second-worst record in the NBA at 21-60. A loss by Houston would lock them into at least a share of the second-worst record in the league, which would at the very least give the Pacers a 50-50 shot at the 32nd overall pick.
The Spurs play the Dallas Mavericks later in the day. Dallas could benefit by losing that game, so it may be hard for San Antonio to stay at 21 wins. With draft positioning and lottery odds at stake, both teams have changed their direction late in the season.
A Rockets loss and a Spurs win today would guarantee the Pacers the 32nd pick in the draft. Any other pairing of results by those two teams opens up the possibility that Indiana will get Miami's second-round pick instead of Houston's which falls much later in the draft.
Putting all that together makes it clear that the Pacers will have eyes on the Wizards-Rockets battle today, and a Wizards win would benefit their outlook at the end of the season.
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