Game Previews

Nets come home to face the Pacers

By Brian Fleurantin Oct 30, 2019, 9:53am EDT

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It's not so fun on the other side. The Brooklyn Nets came away with a last second victory on Friday night against the Knicks, but weren't so fortunate this time as Jae Crowder's overtime buzzer beater handed the Nets a one point loss on Sunday night. For a team with big aspirations, you can't afford to take too many losses like that.

The opponent tonight will be the Indiana Pacers. It's been a disappointing start to the year for Nate McMillan's bunch as they've yet to win a game. They lost on Monday night to the Detroit Pistons to bring their record to 0-3. They go home for the weekend after this one.

Where to follow the game

YES Network on TV. WFAN 101.9 FM on radio. Tip off after 7:30.

Injuries

No Kevin Durant or Wilson Chandler.

No Victor Oladipo.

The game

Revenge might be on Kyrie Irving's mind tonight. If you think back to last postseason, Irving had a rough series against Malcolm Brogdon and the Milwaukee Bucks. Brogdon came over to the Pacers as a free agent this summer and will form a one-two punch with Oladipo when he returns from injury. Irving has been sensational so far in Brooklyn and another big night is likely in store.

Irving is also in the news due to an ESPN report that described his "mood swings." The Nets came out vigorously in his defense afterwards. I'll just say this before I move on: I need you guys to NOT diagnose people you don't know with mental health conditions when said person has not disclosed anything related to that. Whether it's here or anywhere else, cut it out.

As a general rule, the threes will always fun. But tonight, look for it to be even more pronounced. The Nets and Pacers have been the two worst teams in the NBA at defending the three so far. Fortunately for the Nets, they've hit close to 40 percent of their threes on the year, so if it's a shootout, I like their chances.

Player to watch: Myles Turner

The Texas big man will be anchoring the Pacers frontcourt for the foreseeable future. He's been one of the better players from what's turning out to be a really good 2015 Draft class. From the outside looking in, the pairing of Turner and Domantas Sabonis could set the course of the franchise going forward. At 8 points, 9 seconds, Ethan Krieger wrote:

Let’s be fair; it could absolutely work extremely well. Sabonis and Turner could gel nicely with one another and become a matchup nightmare for anyone without two competent bigs on their roster. Sabonis could learn how to defend stretch fours on the perimeter while Myles holds down the paint. They could figure out how to not get in each other’s ways on offense and set the team up to run more creative sets than ever before.

Or, it could all backfire. And then what? What’s the doomsday scenario for the Indiana Pacers if Myles and Domantas just can’t work it out? It seems it could go one of two ways.

Compatibility matters so much, so we'll keep an eye on that duo.

The other Texas big man will look to make his mark. Jarrett Allen came off the bench due to the size disadvantage he had compared to Memphis' Jonaa Valanciunas, but will likely be starting tonight. The other Texas (well, Texas A&M, but still Texas!) big man, DeAndre Jordan will also see a lot of time on the court as well. It looks like Jordan is still getting comfortable with the guards on the team, but so far so good on his end.

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Nets come home to face the Pacers

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