The Golden State Warriors hope to take better advantage of a short-handed opponent than they did in their previous game when they oppose the Indiana Pacers on Saturday night in Indianapolis.
Coming off an impressive home win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday, the Warriors opened a two-game Midwest swing with a 120-110 clunker Thursday in Milwaukee against the Giannis Antetokounmpo-less Bucks.
Golden State will get an opportunity to see the Pacers not only without Tyrese Haliburton, out for the season with an Achilles injury, but also without Obi Toppin, who is scheduled for surgery to repair a broken foot sustained Sunday against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
To put the Pacers at an ever greater disadvantage against the Warriors, they will be playing their second game in two days, having gotten thumped 128-108 at home by the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night.
It doesn’t matter who suits up for the opponent, Warriors coach Steve Kerr noted after the Thursday loss, if his team doesn’t take the other guys seriously.
“It shouldn’t be that way, because we’re like 0-12 the last couple of years when the stars don’t play,” Kerr said. “I just told our coaches, ‘If I (were) an opposing coach, I would just sit the star every time.’
“As a staff, as soon as you hear that the star is out, you’re terrified, because we’ve just seen it a million times. Every NBA team is loaded with talent. Everybody can play in this league. And when the star sits, everybody gets excited.”
Such hadn’t been the case for the Pacers, who have yet to win in five games this season without Haliburton, the driving force in Indiana’s run to Game 7 of the NBA Finals last June.
Indiana had the scheduling advantage the last time the Warriors visited Indianapolis in January. With his team coming off a 107-104 win at Detroit the night before, Kerr elected to sit out six regulars, including Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, and watched the Pacers show no mercy in a 108-96 win.
Haliburton scored 25 points in the contest.
The Pacers tipped off a four-game homestand on Friday with a new look, as Quenton Jackson, a two-way player, made just his eighth career start. He had 15 points to go with four assists and four rebounds in 22 minutes.
Jackson, who played 28 games on the Pacers’ highly successful team last season, isn’t overly concerned about starting or putting up big numbers.
“My mindset is the same every game … trying to get the dub (win),” he said earlier this week. “It’s a team game. I’m going to go out there and provide energy anytime I’m on the floor. That’s kinda my role.”
Jackson should be comforted by the performance of Milwaukee’s Ryan Rollins against the Warriors on Thursday. The journeyman, taking advantage of an opening created by Damian Lillard’s injury-related departure, burned Golden State for a career-high 32 points while dishing eight assists.
Rollins outscored Curry 32-27 in the win.
