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For more on the Indiana Pacers, check out Indy Cornrows.
The Indiana Pacers suffered early on in the season with road woes, and now it appears they're starting to fall victim to it again. They're sitting with a combined record of 17-8, but have lost six of those eight games on the road, where they're 10-6. In their last outing, the Pacers were downed by the Atlanta Hawks 97-87 on the road, and now have a road tilt against the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday. They'll play a good portion of February at home in its second half.
Memphis just snapped a three-game losing streak and is sitting at .500 on the season. They bested the just-over-.500 Minnesota Timberwolves 85-80 on Wednesday. Prior to that, they'd lost three-straight games, and had a four-game losing streak at the end of January. They've been a streaky team to be sure, so stopping them from starting another winning streak should be difficult.
The Pacers, to their credit, have yet to lose back-to-back games this season, but if they continue to play as they have been defensively, it could happen on Friday. Giving up 49 points over the final 20 minutes is basically unforgivable at this point. Still, you don't get the fourth-best record in the Eastern Conference by going on losing skids, and they're favored in this one.
Indiana has dropped four games in a row to the Grizzlies, but the Pacers could be in for a break, as Zach Randolph is out with a knee injury. Randolph had double-doubles in all of those four losses.
For more on the Indiana Pacers, check out Indy Cornrows. You can also head over to SB Nation's main NBA hub at SBNation.com/NBA.
Pacers Vs. Grizzlies Final Score: Indiana Drops Second Straight With 98-92 Loss To Memphis
The Indiana Pacers (17-9) had not lost consecutive games all season until Friday night when they lost to the Memphis Grizzlies 98-92.
The score was tied after each of the first three quarters before a back-and-forth fourth quarter evoked the feeling of an exciting finish destined for overtime. However, after Indiana answered a Memphis run with a 9-0 run of their own to tie the game at 86 with four and a half minutes remaining, the Grizzlies responded with a 7-1 run that the Pacers could not recover from.
Rudy Gay led the Griz with 21 points. David West was the game's high-scorer with 22 points and 13 rebounds.
Indiana returns home to play the Denver Nuggets tomorrow night.
For more on the Indiana Pacers, check out SB Nation's Indiana Pacers blog Indy Cornrows. For all your news and analysis needs on the NBA, check out SB Nation's main NBA hub at SBNation.com/NBA.
Feb 11 12:40a by Brian Packey