The Indiana Pacers will take a 2-0 lead into Philips Arena this Saturday night when they square off against the Atlanta Hawks in Game 3 of a best-of-seven series in the opening round of the playoffs. This Eastern Conference clash is set to tip off at 7 p.m., and the game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN.

Indiana started things off with dominating 107-90 victory over the Hawks last Sunday as a seven-point home favorite. It followed that up with another double-digit 113-98 win as a 7.5-point favorite at home in Game 2. The total went “over” in both games.

Atlanta came into this series with just two straight up victories in its last seven regular season games and a 2-8 record against the spread in its last 10 outings. The total has now gone over in six of its last eight games overall.

Pacers at Hawks Betting Storylines

The Pacers wasted no time setting the pace in this series by opening up an eight-point lead in the first quarter of Game 1, which was eventually expanded to 15 points heading into the fourth. Paul George led the way with 23 points, and the team as a whole shot 44.9 percent from the field while outrebounding Atlanta 48-32.

Indiana picked up where it left off in Game 2 by opening up a nine-point lead at the half on its way to a 15-point win. George lit it up again with a game-high 27 points, and George Hill chipped in another 22 points. The lopsided victory did come at a price with starting guard Lance Stephenson going down with a hip injury. He is currently listed as “questionable” for Saturday night.

The Hawks have only one way to go in this series after two lackluster efforts in the first two games. Their form coming into this series was sketchy to say the least, and it obviously carried over into both of these losses. Atlanta did a better job under the boards on Tuesday night with 41 rebounds and shot 47.1 percent from the field, but it had no answer for how to slow down Indiana on the other end of the court.

To have any shot at climbing back into this series with a win in Game 3, both Jeff Teague and Josh Smith are going to have to come up even bigger than they already have. The two have combined for an average of 34 points a game in this series while shooting lights out from the floor, but it still was not enough to keep things close. The real key could be tightening things up on defense after giving up an average of 110 points to a Pacers’ team that averaged just 94.7 points a game in the regular season.

Pacers at Hawks Game 3 NBA Betting Odds and Trends

BetOnline has opened the Hawks as 2.5-point home favorites for Saturday night’s clash with the “over/under” set at 190.

The Pacers are 5-1 ATS in their last six opening-round playoff games and 7-3 ATS in their last 10 games against teams from the Southeast Division. The total has gone over in six of their last seven games.

The Hawks are 2-5 ATS in their last seven games following a SU loss and 0-7 ATS in their last seven home games. The total has gone over in six of their last seven games overall.

Head-to-head in this matchup, the favorite is 21-6 ATS in the last 27 meetings, and the total has gone over in the last five games. Indiana is now 4-2 both SU and ATS in six games between the two this season.

Pacers at Hawks Picks and Betting Predictions

Indiana has completely dominated this series so far in just about every phase of the game and fully realizes that a win on Saturday night would most likely seal things up in this series. The bottom line is that the Pacers are clearly the better team in this matchup. And while Atlanta will put forth a much better effort in front of the home-town crowd, it still will not be enough to avoid another loss.

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