Pacers Vs Trail Blazers matchup puts Portland’s Play-In push at stake

Portland’s grip on the Western Conference’s No. 10 seed — and its chance to stay in the Play-In picture — hinges on how it handles a struggling Indiana team Sunday night. As of 3: 00 p. m. ET Sunday, the pacers vs trail blazers game carried key injury questions for Andrew Nembhard and Deni Avdija, shaping rotations for both sides ahead of tip.

Portland Trail Blazers’ No. 10 seed faces pressure in late-season stretch

The Trail Blazers enter the night at 30-34, holding the No. 10 seed in the Western Conference and sitting six games ahead of the No. 11 seed Memphis Grizzlies. With roughly a month left in the season, Portland is trying to mount a late push to secure at least a Play-In spot, making each home game part of a narrowing runway.

That urgency has been amplified by uneven recent form. Portland is 4-6 in its last 10 games, and the losses have been described as ugly, with extended stretches where the team’s offense loses “oomph” and becomes slow and stagnant. In those spells, Portland has leaned into three-point attempts even from players not typically relied on to create offense from deep.

In the current rotation, Jrue Holiday and Jerami Grant have carried much of the scoring load. Over his last four contests, Holiday has averaged nearly 26 points per game while shooting better than 50% from the floor. Grant has posted similarly strong production in that span, scoring 24 points per night, and he also had nine rebounds against the Grizzlies. Still, late-game execution has been a recurring concern: against the Houston Rockets, both Holiday and Grant ran out of gas, and Portland scored only 17 points in the fourth quarter as the team faltered.

Pacers vs. Trail Blazers injury report centers on Andrew Nembhard and Deni Avdija

Sunday’s pacers vs trail blazers matchup comes with notable availability questions on both sides. Indiana listed Andrew Nembhard as questionable due to neck and lower back soreness. In Friday’s loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, Nembhard finished with 17 points on 7-for-14 shooting, eight assists, two rebounds and one steal in 31 minutes.

Indiana also listed Aaron Nesmith (right ankle sprain) and Pascal Siakam (left wrist sprain) as probable for the game. For Portland, Deni Avdija has been out since Feb. 22 after he left a game against the Phoenix Suns after one minute because of a lower back injury; he is questionable to return Sunday night.

Portland’s injury list also includes Kris Murray, who has been out since March 1 due to an illness and is questionable to play. Damian Lillard, who re-signed with the Trail Blazers last summer after the Milwaukee Bucks waived him to make room for Myles Turner, is not expected to suit up at all this season due to an Achilles tear.

Indiana Pacers arrive amid an eight-game skid as Portland returns home

Indiana comes into Sunday night having lost each of its last eight games. The Pacers have been framed as one of the league’s bottom teams this season, with one account noting they sit dead last in the Eastern Conference standings at 15-48, while another described them as holding the second-worst record in the NBA. Even with that discrepancy, both snapshots point to the same reality: Indiana has been losing consistently, and the team has been hit hard by injuries.

One central factor has been the absence of Tyrese Haliburton, whose Achilles tear last year has been tied directly to Indiana’s decline and a loss of offensive identity. Without him, Indiana has been described as falling away from a blazing-fast, transition-oriented style. The team still attempts the most three-pointers in the NBA, but its effectiveness from beyond the arc has cratered, and its transition offense has been described as sliding from prolific and efficient in 2024-2025 to very bad in 2025-2026.

Beyond Haliburton, the Pacers have dealt with a string of availability issues across the rotation. Obi Toppin recently returned from a 56-game absence due to a stress fracture in his right foot. Aaron Nesmith has battled lower-body problems all season. Yet, players such as Pascal Siakam and Andrew Nembhard have played nearly the entire season, underscoring how much of Indiana’s struggles have come from structural and stylistic disruption rather than simply a lack of recognizable names.

For Portland, the matchup arrives as the team returns home from what was described as a “Road Trip of Doom. ” One preview listed the game time as 6: 00 p. m. ET, while the injury report preview listed Sunday’s tip as 9: 00 p. m. ET; the teams were still set to meet Sunday night in Portland with both sides managing questionable tags that could reshape the flow.

Portland has had the upper hand in the longer view of the matchup: the Trail Blazers are 6-4 in their last 10 games against Indiana and 16-6 against the Pacers since the 2014-15 season. Still, Portland’s current challenge is more immediate than historical: finding enough offense beyond Holiday and Grant to avoid another late fade, especially while dealing with injuries that have taken dynamism out of the lineup.

If Andrew Nembhard’s status and Deni Avdija’s possible return are resolved before Sunday’s scheduled 9: 00 p. m. ET tip, both teams’ rotation plans are expected to become clearer heading into the final month of the season.