Preview: Warriors take on Pacers in battle of limping teams

The battle of the blue-and-gold teams kicks off as the reigning, defending, heavyweight champions of the basketball world Golden State Warriors take on the Indiana Pacers.

Golden State Warriors vs Indiana Pacers

December 5th, 2022 | 7:00 PT

Watch: NBC Sports Bay Area, NBA League Pass | Listen: 95.7 The Game

The Pacers stunned the world last week when they upset the star-studded Los Angeles Lakers on a dramatic buzzer beater after clawing out of a double-digit deficit.

Since then they’ve lost three in a row, getting blown out by the Kings, Jazz, and Trail Blazers. This team boasts intriguing pieces across their depth chart: the dynamic young guard Tyrese Haliburton (leading the team in points and assists), the shot blocking stretch big Myles Turner, and the 3PT threats on the wings in Buddy Hield and Bennedict Mathurin.

That’s a pretty good looking team in NBA 2K, but they haven’t quite figured it out during this early part of the season, currently barely above .500 with a 12-11 record. Injuries have slowed them down, and they’ll have some tough sledding against the Dubs as Haliburton is slated to miss this contest per our blog buddy Indy Cornrows:

The Pacers have already announced that Haliburton will miss tomorrow night’s game against the Golden State Warriors, so it’s entirely possible they’ll be running out this same unit against a Warriors team that has won seven of their last nine depending on how McConnell is feeling. That’ll increase the likelihood of this losing streak extending past three games, but the Pacers have pulled off more surprising upsets in San Francisco recently and will no doubt have plenty of motivation after the Warriors stole Indiana’s hashtag last season.

Stole Indiana’s hashtag? Are they referring to “gold blooded”? As the Gold Blooded King, I can assure all Indiana fans that the Golden Empire would never steal from a franchise as depleted as theirs. And speaking of being barely above .500, how about your world champion Warriors?

They currently boast a 13-11 record, but they’re damn near invincible at home. Still, with Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins questionable, will they have enough pieces to keep their dominance at Chase Center rolling?

The Dubs may need the Splash Bros to go berserk to pull this one off, thankfully Klay Thompson is no stranger to lighting up the Pacers.