{"id":670486,"date":"2026-03-21T09:59:49","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T09:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/670486\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T09:59:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T09:59:49","slug":"game-preview-san-antonio-spurs-vs-indiana-pacers-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/670486\/","title":{"rendered":"Game Preview: San Antonio Spurs vs. Indiana Pacers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">March brings the most unpredictable period of basketball of the year. Usually, that uncertainty is reserved for the college game, but on Saturday, it may carry over to the NBA in San Antonio, not because of the product on the court, but who may even play in the game. The Indiana Pacers\u2019 injury report is chock-full of questionable statuses, making it nearly impossible to know who will suit up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">At the end of the day, it may not matter who suits up for Indiana. The San Antonio Spurs are on a four-game winning streak and have won 20 of their last 22. Meanwhile, the Pacers have not won a game since the All-Star break, losing 15 straight games. The Spurs are chasing the 60-win mark, while Indiana is playing for lottery odds.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">San Antonio has also been short-handed for the last few games. Stephon Castle missed their last game against the Phoenix Suns. He is listed as questionable on Saturday. Even if he does suit up against the Pacers, the Spurs should have a chance to go deep in their rotation and pull out a win against an Indiana team incentivized to lose.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.poundingtherock.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:San Antonio Spurs;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;San Antonio Spurs&quot;}\" class=\"link \">San Antonio Spurs<\/a>\u00a0(52-18) vs. Indiana Pacers (15-55)March 21st, 2026 | 7 PM CTWatch: FanDuel | Listen: WOAI (1200 AM)<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Spurs Injuries: Stephon Castle \u2013 Questionable (hip), Harrison Ingram \u2013 Out (G League), David Jones Garcia \u2013 Out (G League), Emanuel Miller \u2013 Out (G League)<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Pacers Injuries:\u00a0Johnny Furphy \u2013 Out (knee), Tyress Haliburton \u2013 Out (achilles), Quenton Jackson \u2013 Questionable (calf), T.J. McConnell \u2013 Questionable (hamstring), Andrew Nembhard \u2013 Questionable (calf), Aaron Nesmith \u2013 Questionable (ankle), Peter Taelon \u2013 Questionable (G League), Micah Potter \u2013 Questionable (tricep), Ben Sheppard \u2013 Questionable (ankle), Jalen Slawson \u2013 Questionable (G League), Ethan Thompson \u2013 Out (G League), Obi Toppin \u2013 Quesitonable (foot), Ivica Zubac \u2013 Out (rib)<\/p>\n<p>What to watch for:Rookie impact<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Dylan Harper and Carter Bryant struggled against the Suns on Thursday. Saturday\u2019s game gives them a great opportunity to bounce back. Mitch Johnson has given the rookies more playing time and opportunities against tanking teams near the end of the season. Harper and Bryant should have plenty of chances to build some confidence and warm up heading into the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Protecting the paint<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Saturday will be a matchup between two of the best shot blockers in the NBA. Victor Wembanyama\u2019s skills need no explanation, but Jay Huff has been great at protecting the rim for the Pacers. He\u2019s averaging 1.9 blocks per game. Both teams will have to maneuver around shot blockers to get good looks in the paint. That\u2019s particularly important for the Spurs, whose offense thrives on downhill attacking guards and paint scoring from Wembanyama.<\/p>\n<p>Ball movement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Both of these teams are at their best when they are swinging the ball, setting screens, and finding the open man. The Pacers are 13th in the league in assists, the Spurs are 11th. Saturday should be a fun game for fans of ball movement and team basketball. San Antonio, in particular, benefits from its guards getting into the paint, either kicking it out to shooters or lobbing it to Wembanyama and Luke Kornet to finish over traffic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March brings the most unpredictable period of basketball of the year. Usually, that uncertainty is reserved for the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3774],"tags":[280,1784,7,642,363,978,29133,226,26579,31821,7991,113,126,3866,532,29326,4960,1252,4996,32137,6,3308,114,472,10986,969,474,930,3886,2594,693],"class_list":{"0":"post-670486","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indiana-pacers","8":"tag-aaron-nesmith","9":"tag-andrew-nembhard","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-ben-sheppard","12":"tag-bennedict-mathurin","13":"tag-carter-bryant","14":"tag-david-jones-garcia","15":"tag-dylan-harper","16":"tag-emanuel-miller","17":"tag-ethan-thompson","18":"tag-harrison-ingram","19":"tag-indiana","20":"tag-indiana-pacers","21":"tag-indianapacers","22":"tag-ivica-zubac","23":"tag-jalen-slawson","24":"tag-jay-huff","25":"tag-johnny-furphy","26":"tag-luke-kornet","27":"tag-micah-potter","28":"tag-nba","29":"tag-obi-toppin","30":"tag-pacers","31":"tag-phoenix-suns","32":"tag-quenton-jackson","33":"tag-san-antonio","34":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","35":"tag-stephon-castle","36":"tag-t-j-mcconnell","37":"tag-the-spurs","38":"tag-victor-wembanyama"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116266583932840812","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}