The 61-12 Oklahoma City Thunder will be hosting the 43-30 Indiana Pacers tonight in a matchup of two upper-echelon teams in the NBA.
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The Pacers currently sit at fourth in the Eastern Conference standings, and are looking to hold on to home-court advantage in their final nine games with the Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks nipping at their heels.
The Thunder have nobody anywhere close to their heels, sitting at first in the Western Conference by a whopping 13.5 games over the Houston Rockets. They will be looking to continue a historic season, where they can reach 70 wins on the season if they win out.
Regarding injuries, both teams are relatively healthy with only a few small injuries. For the Pacers, the biggest player currently hurt for them is young wing Bennedict Mathurin.
Mathurin is third on the team in scoring with 16.1 points per game, and has started 48 of the 67 games he has played in. However, he will not play tonight, with the reason listed being left calf soreness.
He joins Isaiah Jackson as being out, who has a torn right achilles tendon.
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For the Thunder, their injury report consists of a multitude of role players, with the top guy being starting center and leading rebounder Isaiah Hartenstein.
The big man is averaging a double-double on the season with 11 points and 11 rebounds per game, and is also third on the team in assists and second on the team in blocks.
Despite dealing with a nasal fracture injury, Hartenstein is available for tonight's game.
Ousmane Dieng, Aaron Wiggins, Nikola Topic, Ajay Mitchell, and Alex Ducas are all out for the game, while Alex Caruso and Jaylin Williams remain questionable.
One luxury the Thunder have regarding their position in the standings is that they can rest players if they desire who have lingering injuries. Unlike the Pacers, they have clinched their current spot in the standings, so the rest of the games are just warmups for the playoffs.
The Pacers are in a good position to obtain home-court advantage in their first-round matchup, but that doesn't mean they can sit anyone they like on any given night.
In what should be a fun matchup between two talented young teams, it will be interesting to see if the Pacers can score on the historically good Thunder defense even without Mathurin.
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This story was originally published March 29, 2025 at 1:45 PM.