Pacers look to continue winning ways vs. Hawks

The Atlanta Hawks will look to end their futility against the visiting Indiana Pacers on Thursday, as the two teams meet for the first of a two-game set in Atlanta.Atlanta has dropped five in a row against Indiana, including a five-point loss in Indianapolis on Feb. 1, and all four meetings last season. The Hawks will have two cracks at the surging Pacers, who will play again in State Farm Arena on Saturday.The Hawks enter play losers in six of eight games, including Tuesday’s 127-121 home loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. On the second night of a back-to-back, a late 8-0 Atlanta run knotted the score with just over a minute left before the Bucks scored the game’s final six points to end the Hawks’ chances.”I thought the effort was there, considering we played on a back-to-back,” Atlanta assistant coach Igor Kokoskov, who filled in for a sick Quin Snyder, said. “We competed for 48 minutes, but playing hard isn’t good enough. We have to play well. We had a low margin of error against a very good team.”A bright spot for an Atlanta team that sits in the ninth spot of the Eastern Conference standings has been the play of its recent acquisitions, Caris LeVert and Georges Niang. The pair were traded from Cleveland at the trade deadline and are averaging 16.8 points and 13.3 points per game, respectively, since joining the Hawks.Trae Young leads Atlanta with 23.6 points per contest and paces the entire league with 11.5 assists per game.The Pacers continue their ascent in the conference’s playoff picture, currently holding the No. 5 seed in the East. Indiana has won six of eight games and is 19-7 since the calendar flipped to 2025.