Pacers Fall to Lakers, Miss Chance to Overtake Hornets for Eighth Seed
INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indiana Pacers (33-38) fell to the Los Angeles Lakers (41-30) 122-115 on Saturday afternoon in Indianapolis.
The Pacers had a chance to become the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference if they had won because the Charlotte Hornets fell 118-109 to the Knicks in New York.
The Hornets and Pacers remain tied, but Charlotte owns the tiebreaker.
Facing the Lakers with LeBron James playing his first game in nearly two weeks and Anthony Davis coming off of missing the last game against the Rockets was a tough break for the Pacers. They were without an abundance of key players such as All-Star Domantas Sabonis, Aaron Holiday, T.J. Warren, Myles Turner and Malcolm Brogdon.
The short-handed Pacers did compete against the world champions, as they kept it close the entire game.
"Down the stretch, we had good looks," Nate Bjorkgren said post-game. I thought we had a couple good open looks at the basket, a couple open three-balls that we didn't knock down. If we get one of those to go it's a different story there; they made some shots when they had to."
As for the status of the players who are out, Bjorkgren did not have an answer if they would be available or not on Sunday.
"I haven't had 100% confirmation from any of them that they'd be back tomorrow for the last regular-season game and then even going forward," Bjorkgren said.
The Pacers allowed Davis to get 28 points and ten rebounds and James to score 24 points, grab eight rebounds and dish out seven assists.
Caris LeVert continues to impress as he had 28 points and 12 assists.
The Pacers will play their last regular game of the season on Sunday against the Raptors in Tampa Bay.
