Round 1 of the NBA Playoffs continue on Monday night and we will see Atlanta Hawks travel to Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana to take on the Indiana Pacers in game 5 of their best-of-seven series. The game has a start time of 8:00 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on NBA TV. Vegas odds have the Pacers listed as 6.5 point favorites, while the total sits at 186.5.
Stat Packs: The Atlanta Hawks are the only team in the playoffs that had a losing record during the regular season, but they did catch a break by drawing a struggling Pacers in the first round of the playoffs. The Hawks have played well thus far and are even with the Pacers in the series at 2 games apiece. Atlanta in now 8-4 in their last 12 games overall and are 15-28 on the road this year. During the regular season, the Atlanta Hawks were rather ordinary on offense, putting up 101.1 ppg, but vs the Indiana defense they have scored just 93 ppg on 39.2% shooting so far. In the playoffs Paul Milsap has led the team in scoring at 21.8 ppg, while Jeff Teague (19.5 ppg) and Kyle Korver (12.5 ppg) have also averaged in double figures for the Hawks. The defense has been pretty good vs a poor Indiana offense, allowing the Pacers just 92.5 ppg on 44.7% shooting.
The Indiana Pacers came into the playoffs as the number 1 seed in the East, but they certainly haven’t played like it as they find themselves in an 0-2 hole to the Atlanta Hawks, who are the only team in the playoffs with a losing record. The Pacers are now just 21-21 SU on the road this year and they are just 4-13 ATS the last 17 meetings in Atlanta. Just like the regular season, the pacers are having issues on offense as they have averaged just 93.0 ppg on 43.6% shooting so far. In the playoffs Paul George leads the team in scoring at 21.0 ppg, while Lance Stephenson (13.5 ppg), Luis scola (13.0 ppg), David West (10.7 ppg) and George Hill (10.3 ppg) have also averaged in double figures for the Pacers. The Pacers really make their stand at the defensive end of the floor, where they ranked 2nd in points allowed during the regular season (92.3 ppg) and 1st in defensive FG% (42%). Against the Hawks so far they have allowed 94 ppg on just 40.4% shooting.
Pick: I will be going with the Under in this one. The Pacers defense has stepped it up after allowing 101 points to the Hawks in game 1 of this series, by allowing just 90.3 ppg in the last 3. In the last game here they allowed just 85 points and have allowed just 88.3 ppg at home for the year. Indiana on offense is not very strong at all as they have averaged just 92.5 ppg in the 4 games of this series and the Hawks have allowed just 93.1 ppg in their last 9 games overall. Pacer home games have averaged 186.8 ppg on the year, but this one is a huge game and those game tend to be lower scoring than other, so I will call for this one to land around 180 at best.
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NBA Playoff Update #1
Steve Fezzik, from Pregame.com, give his thoughts on how the NBA playoffs have gone so far and what to look for in the future.