Wizards @ Pacers

Who will WIN this matchup?

Washington Wizards (31-36)

@ Indiana Pacers (31-35)

Current odds:

Washington Wizards: (-180)

Indiana Pacers: (+160)

• The line for this game is Wizards by 4 points.

• Eastern Conference opponents jockeying for playoff positioning meet Saturday in Indianapolis when the Indiana Pacers host the Washington Wizards. Indiana (31-35) remained in ninth place in the East after a 133-126 defeat of Atlanta on Thursday, but Washington (31-36) kept pace with its 131-129 overtime win against Toronto. The Pacers hold a half-game lead over the Wizards ahead of Saturday’s matchup. Both gained ground on eighth-place Charlotte, which lost Thursday to Chicago.

• Charlotte sits in eighth in the conference, a significant distinction for the play-in tournament. The No. 7 and No. 8 seeds need to win just one game in the format to qualify for the playoffs, while seeds nine and 10 — where Indiana and Washington are currently seeded — need to win twice in the play-in tournament to reach the playoffs.

• Thursday’s performance marked LeVert’s third game with 31 or more points over Indiana’s last five. Since suiting up with Indiana on March 13 — a debut delayed two months when renal cell carcinoma of his left kidney was discovered upon his trade to the Pacers from Brooklyn — LeVert is averaging 20.2 points per game. That is third on the team behind only Malcolm Brogdon’s 21.2 average and Domantas Sabonis’ 20.3.

• Sabonis went for 30 points, nine assists and eight rebounds in Thursday’s win, while Brogdon missed his fourth consecutive game with a hamstring injury.

• Washington, meanwhile, played Thursday without 13.8-point per game scoring forward Rui Hachimura due to an illness. Thursday was Hachimura’s second consecutive absence.

• Bradley Beal, the NBA’s second-leading scorer at 31.1 points per game, scored 28 points in Thursday’s win, while Raul Neto registered a career-high 25 points.

• Russell Westbrook went for 13 points, 17 rebounds and 17 assists to record his 34th triple-double of the season and 180th of his career. Westbrook’s next triple-double will tie him with Oscar Robertson for the most in NBA history.

• Thursday’s win marked a bounce-back for Washington on the second leg of a back-to-back, following a heartbreaking one-point loss to Milwaukee. The Wizards have won 12 of their last 15, a stretch that includes their 154-141 defeat of Indiana on May 3. Washington also won the March 29 matchup, 132-124.

• Saturday’s game is the midway point of a five-game road swing for Washington, which has five games remaining in the regular season with a magic number of two to clinch a play-in tournament spot.