Brought to you by WBIW News and Network Indiana
Last updated on Friday, March 6, 2009
(LOS ANGELES, CA) - The Indiana Pacers will practice today in Los Angeles before winding up their final west coast road trip of the season Saturday night against the Clippers.
The Pacers have split the first two games of the trip, beating the Kings 117-109 Tuesday night in Sacramento before being edged by the Trail Blazers 107-105 Wednesday in Portland.
The loss was the blue-and-gold's 13th in their last 15 games away from Conseco Fieldhouse and snapped a two-game winning streak. The Pacers have won three games in a row just once this season, and that came back in November.
Indiana is at the tail end of a six-team log jam battling for the eighth and final playoff berth in the eastern conference. Milwaukee holds down the eight spot by percentage points over Chicago. New Jersey is tenth, a half-game behind the Bucks and Bulls with Charlotte a game and-a-half back and the Pacers percentage points ahead of New York for twelfth place in the conference two games out of a playoff spot.
Following tomorrow night's game with the Clippers, Indiana returns home to face the Utah Jazz on Tuesday before hitting the road again for games at Atlanta and Toronto next weekend.
The Pacers had hoped that Danny Granger would return by the end of this week's western trip, but head coach Jim O'Brien does not expect to have his leading scorer back for tomorrow night's game with the Clippers.
O'Brien discussed Granger's status on his weekly radio show on Thursday night and said that granger won't be back until Tuesday night's home game with Utah at the earliest. Granger suffered a partially torn ligament in his foot and has missed eight games so far.
The Pacers may also be without backup guard Travis Diener on Saturday as Diener battles a viral infection.
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