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Indiana and Atlanta Meet with bragging rights, Tournament Supremacy on the line



The Indiana Pacers can become one of the first teams to clinch the first overall seed in their NBA In-Season Tournament group on Tuesday night when they play the Hawks in Atlanta. The Pacers are 2-0 in group play and have been one of the most intriguing teams in this NBA season so far. Tyrese Haliburton leads the NBA in assists per game and the Pacers as a team are 1st in the NBA in PPG.

The Hawks still have a path to winning the group. If they can get wins over the Pacers and the Cavaliers and have Philadelphia lose to Cleveland, they will win Group A. They are going to have to start playing better though, as they have lost four of their last six games.

For in-season tournament purposes, this game is huge for Atlanta tomorrow if they hope to advance. The tip-off is set for 7:30 in Atlanta.

“Indiana is a team that runs even after makes,” Capela said via atlhawksfans on November 19. “So this is something that we have to get better, do more consistently: transition defense. It’s been a problem since I got here. But it’s something that we just have to find consistently.

The Pacers rank third in transition points per game and frequency, per NBA.com. Atlanta ranks second and first, respectively.

Both teams are allowing the fifth-most transition points per game, though, perhaps equalizing that battle some. But the Hawks have ranked no higher than 18th in transition PPG in the three-plus seasons Capela – who was acquired from the Houston Rockets via trade in 2020 – has been with the team.

He knows they have to tighten it up to make real progress.

“If you’re trying to take that step, we have to be able to do it the next game, and the next game,” Capela said. “We have to find a way to tell ourselves that this is what we got to do and focus on that and then maybe do it more consistently.”

That was not to dismiss the Pacers, who come in at 7-5 and have lost two of their last three contests but have won five of their last seven.

“It is good if you can do it against the Pacers,” Capela said. “The Pacers is a team they’re going to try to run us at the gym, [whether] we score or not.”

Jamaaliver wrote:

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