RealGM

The struggling Indiana Pacers hope they're finally getting healthy enough to compete at a high level.


The Golden State Warriors have struggled to play at that level all season.

Indiana looks for its first season sweep of Golden State since 2005-06 on Monday night when it faces a Warriors team coming off its worst home loss in three seasons.

Making his season debut after undergoing knee surgery in March, Pacers forward Mike Dunleavy hit 4 of 7 from the field and scored 13 points Friday in a 113-92 loss to Dallas.

"I could have played more (than 15 minutes), but I think with the way the game went, they decided not to play me more. So far so good," said Dunleavy, who returns to Oakland where he played his first four-plus seasons before being traded in Indiana during the 2006-07 season.

The Pacers (6-8), though, lost their fifth in six games Friday.

"We did not play tough enough. That's why we got pounded," coach Jim O'Brien said after Indiana was outrebounded 54-33. "You have to play with tremendous force and we did not."

Pacers leading scorer Danny Granger also returned to the lineup after missing Wednesday's 86-73 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers with a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee.

Granger, who scored 20 points on 5 of 16 shooting versus the Mavericks, had 31 points and a career-high 16 rebounds in a 108-94 victory over the visiting Warriors on Nov. 11.

Granger is averaging 38.0 points and 11.3 rebounds in his last three games against Golden State, including a career-high 42-point effort in the Pacers' last visit to Oracle Arena -- a 120-117 win on Jan. 14.

chatard5 wrote:Monta fouls out... We have a chance!