Indiana @ Washington
Current Records: Indiana 30-33; Washington 29-35
This Monday, the Washington Wizards are hoping to patch up the holes in a defense that has allowed an average of 117.7 points per contest. They will be playing at home against the Indiana Pacers at 7 p.m. ET Monday. If the matchup is anything like Washington's 132-124 victory from their previous meeting in March, the scorekeeper will be kept real busy.
The Wizards were just a bucket shy of a win this past Saturday and fell 125-124 to the Dallas Mavericks. Point guard Russell Westbrook put forth a good effort for the losing side as he almost dropped a triple-double on 42 points, ten boards, and nine assists.
Meanwhile, you can't lose the game if you win every quarter, and that was precisely Indiana's strategy against the Oklahoma City Thunder this past Saturday. The Pacers really took it to Oklahoma City for a full four quarters, racking up a 152-95 win on the road. The game was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 82-46. Indiana's power forward Domantas Sabonis did his thing and posted a triple-double on 26 points, 19 rebounds, and 14 dimes. That makes it 12 consecutive games in which Sabonis has had at least ten rebounds.
Washington is the favorite in this one, with an expected 5-point margin of victory. They are currently three-for-three against the spread in their most recent games, a trend bettors might want to take into account.
Indiana's victory lifted them to 30-33 while Washington's loss dropped them down to 29-35. Given their high-scoring efforts against their previous opponents, it will be interesting to see how far up these teams can run up the score.
The Wizards are a 5-point favorite against the Pacers, according to the latest NBA odds.
The oddsmakers had a good feel for the line for this one, as the game opened with the Wizards as a 4.5-point favorite.
Over/Under: -111
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Indiana have won nine out of their last 17 games against Washington.
