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Pacers

Anthony Davis scored 28 points and LeBron James returned after a six-game absence to score 24 Saturday to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a 122-115 victory over the Indiana Pacers.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
LeBron (24 PTS) &amp; AD (28 PTS &amp; 10 REB) came up HUGE in Indy 💪 <a href="https://t.co/kZuL0tPPe9">pic.twitter.com/kZuL0tPPe9</a>
&mdash; NBA TV (@NBATV) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBATV/status/1393659952800178181?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 15, 2021</a></blockquote>

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The Lakers can notch the No. 6 seed if they win at New Orleans on Sunday and Portland loses to Denver that day. If the Lakers finish No. 7, they will be in the play-in tournament against the No. 8 seed.
Davis, who missed the previous game because of a tight left thigh, sank 9 of 18 shots and grabbed 10 rebounds. James played 28 minutes, hitting 11 of 22 shots. James had eight assists and seven rebounds.
James had missed the last six games trying to recover from high ankle sprain. He missed six weeks and then returned to play two games. Davis had missed Wednesday&rsquo;s game with Houston. Andre Drummond had 15 rebounds for the Lakers, who held a 45-37 rebounding edge.
The Lakers led 111-97 before the Pacers scored 11 straight points to trim the lead to 111-108 with 3:07 left. James then took over by scoring the next seven points, starting with a 3-pointer to put the Lakers up 118-110.
Caris LeVert, who was questionable entering the game with knee injury, was high for the Pacers with 28. JaKarr Sampson came off the bench to score 20.
The Pacers could finish with the No. 8, 9 or 10 seed. The Pacers are tied with Charlotte and Washington at 33-38, but would lose the tiebreaker against both teams if tied.
The Lakers led 64-56 at halftime and 96-88 after three quarters.
TIP-INS
Lakers: Captured the two-game season series with the Pacers, previously winning 105-100 March 12. &hellip; Dennis Schroder returned after missing seven games because of the NBA&rsquo;s safety and health protocol. Schroder finished with 14 points &hellip; Alex Caruso, who had been sidelined with sore left foot, was available but Lakers coach Frank Vogel chose to rest him.
Pacers: With Domantas Sabonis sidelined, Goga Bitadze made just his third start of the season. &hellip; In his third game back after missing six games with a concussion, JaKarr Sampson scored a Pacers career-high 20 points. His previous high with the Pacers was 16.
PACERS&rsquo; INJURIES MOUNT
The short-handed Pacers took another blow when they had to play without Domantas Sabonis, who injured his left quad against Milwaukee on Thursday night and wasn&rsquo;t able to go.
Edmond Sumner (knee) and Aaron Holiday (toe) missed their third consecutive game
Indiana has been without Myles Turner (toe) since April 18 and Malcolm Brogdon (hamstring) since April 29.
UP NEXT
Lakers: Play at New Orleans on Sunday.
Pacers: Play Toronto at Tampa, Florida, on Sunday.
___
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Anthony Davis scored 28 points and LeBron James returned after a six-game absence to score 24 to lead Lakers over the Pacers.

LeBron James returns, Anthony Davis dominates to send Lakers by Pacers

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) &mdash; The already short-handed Indiana Pacers will play Oklahoma City on Wednesday night without forward JaKarr Sampson after the NBA announced he would serve a one-game suspension following his ejection during Monday's loss to San Antonio.
Sampson received a flagrant two foul and automatic ejection early in the fourth quarter against the Spurs. The incident began as Sampson and San Antonio guard Patty Mills fought for a rebound, resulting in a shoving match. Sampson then confronted Mills and headbutted him before Spurs forward Rudy Gay shoved Sampson.
Mills and Gay both received technical fouls for their part in the altercation. The league fined Mills $25,000 and Gay $20,000.
Indiana has lost three in a row. Oklahoma City has lost 11 consecutive games.

The NBA suspended JaKarr Sampson for headbutting Patty Mills. The league also fined Mills $25,000 and Rudy Gay $20,000.

Pacers' Sampson gets 1-game suspension for headbutting Mills

Jakarr Sampson has agreed to a return with the Indiana Pacers on a one-year minimum contract.
Source: <a href="https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1330544362636398593" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shams Charania/Twitter</a>
ANALYSIS:&nbsp;The deal is fully guaranteed for Sampson, who will return to the Pacers after playing 34 games with the franchise last season. Sampson mostly came off the bench in a limited role, but the 27-year-old did start 12 contests when Indiana was ravaged by injuries during the season.

The 27-year-old wing plans to be back with Indiana on a fully-guaranteed deal.

Jakarr Sampson agrees to minimum deal return with Pacers

Was last season a success for the Indiana Pacers? It depends on your perspective, really.
On one hand, they were able to reel off 45 wins despite getting very little from Victor Oladipo, at least by his All-Star caliber standards. Newcomer Malcolm Brogdon started off the season red-hot before injuries (and some natural regression) took the wind out of his sails. Domantas Sabonis made his first All-Star team, but had his season derailed by a foot injury. So many things went wrong, and yet the Pacers were still able to land home court advantage in the playoffs.
On the other hand, this was yet another postseason where the Pacers didn&rsquo;t make the first round. You can write off some of this season&rsquo;s run due to the nature of the injuries they faced, but this remains a results-based league. Then-head coach Nate McMillan, who did a fantastic job navigating the Pacers&rsquo; injury-bitten roster, still found himself out of a job due in part to their early exit.
Now, the fun part begins.
The Pacers are entering the offseason with most of their team intact. This offseason is an important one due to the drama surrounding Oladipo. He obviously wants to get paid; there&rsquo;s also enough smoke to believe <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-trade-rumors-possible-destinations-victor-oladipo-indiana-pacers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">he&rsquo;s a real risk to take his talents elsewhere in 2021</a>. Navigating the trade waters in this environment, if the Pacers even choose to go that route, will be one of the most important storylines of the offseason.
As far as free agency goes, there&rsquo;s no real avenue to cap space regardless of what they decide in terms of renouncements. The Pacers will operate as an over the cap team and have a non-taxpayer mid-level exception (worth over $9 million) at their disposal. The always-informative Keith Smith has a more thorough breakdown of their cap situation, which you can find <a href="https://www.slamonline.com/nba/indiana-pacers-salary-cap-space-2020/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.&nbsp;
Let&rsquo;s take a look at some guys they&rsquo;ll look to bring back as well as some targets that could help them come back stronger than ever.
Key In-House Decisions
Justin Holiday: Bring Him Back
Holiday may end up being the most popular role player wing in this year&rsquo;s market. He&rsquo;s a 3-and-D-ish wing with a little added juice offensively because of his off-ball activity. He&rsquo;s a heady cutter, which fits well with Sabonis as the high post hub. He also snuffs out opportunities around the perimeter, using defenders&rsquo; blind spots to slip into catch-and-shoot opportunities. Retaining him should be priority number one.
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JaKarr Sampson: Circle Back Later
Sampson is mostly a tools guy, but generates intrigue because of his defensive versatility. He entered the league as a 3, but surprisingly gave Indy some spot value as a 4, and even a super-small-ball 5 in the team's first-round series against the Miami Heat. There&rsquo;s only so much value he can have with his limited tool kit offensively; still, he&rsquo;s an energy piece that has a role if other options fall through.
Free Agent Guards
Mid-Tier Option: Jordan Clarkson
Clarkson is coming off of, by far, the most efficient season of his career. He gave the Utah Jazz a much-needed scoring punch once he arrived, averaging 15.6 points with a 56.9 True Shooting percentage during the regular season. Both of those marks increased (16.7, 57.7) during Utah&rsquo;s first-round showdown with the Denver Nuggets.&nbsp;
Him trading out some of his frustrating long-twos for threes made him a more efficient option. In a world where Oladipo may be dealt, adding Clarkson as a secondary creator could make sense.
Bargains: Tyler Johnson
Johnson had a pretty quiet regular season campaign, kicking things off in Phoenix before finding his way to the Brooklyn Nets mid-season. Johnson performed well in the postseason, averaging a shade under 14 points while unloading the clip from deep (39.3 percent on 7.0 attempts). He&rsquo;s a fearless driver and underrated rebounder; he isn&rsquo;t afraid of mixing it up with bigger players.
Free Agent Wings 
Mid-Tier Option: Wesley Matthews
There&rsquo;s a case to be made that Matthews could accept another minimum deal from a contender, either remaining in Milwaukee or going elsewhere. There&rsquo;s an even stronger case to be made that he&rsquo;s earned himself a pay day.
Matthews routinely took on the most demanding perimeter defensive assignments throughout the regular season, while knocking down over 36 percent of his threes on decent volume. He then upped the ante in the postseason, something that the Miami Heat -- and Jimmy Butler -- got a firsthand look at.&nbsp;
Bargains: Kent Bazemore
The idea of Bazemore -- an athletic, 3-and-D wing that can defend 1-through-3 -- is probably a little better than the reality. Still, he can knock down open shots, is an active mover off the ball and competes defensively against both wing positions.&nbsp;
Free Agent Forwards 
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Sign-and-Trade Option: Danilo Gallinari&nbsp;
As mentioned in the intro, the Pacers probably need to consolidate talent more than they need to add free agents. Gallinari would immediately boost their shooting and half-court shot creation. He can get to the rack -- and the free throw line -- on his own, a big deal for a team that <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/traditional/?sort=FTA&amp;dir=1&amp;Season=2019-20&amp;SeasonType=Regular%20Season&amp;PerMode=Per100Possessions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ranked dead last</a> in free throw attempts per 100 possessions (19.1).
Bargains: Lance Thomas
Thomas has flown under the radar for years as a sneaky-solid forward defender that can knock down open threes. He&rsquo;s converted 38.5 percent of his triples over the past five seasons, though that comes on limited volume. He&rsquo;d be a solid get as a ninth man to get you through the regular season.
Free Agent Bigs 
Bargains: Meyers Leonard, Harry Giles, JaVale McGee
Leonard&rsquo;s free agency value will come down to which version from last year teams feel they&rsquo;ll be getting. If it&rsquo;s the regular season version, where Leonard helped anchor one of the best starting lineups in the NBA with his shooting (41.4 percent from three), screening and vocal quarterbacking defensively, then you could argue he should command a portion of the MLE. If it&rsquo;s the postseason version, where Leonard looked out of place defensively and his lack of three-point volume really stood out, the vet minimum could be all he musters.
Giles has a bit of an injury history dating back to his high-school days. Multiple lower-body injuries have sapped some of his athleticism, and he&rsquo;s still a fluid, jumpy big who can feast in transition. The intrigue lies in his on-ball skill; he&rsquo;s quietly one of the better passing big men in the league already. There&rsquo;s some serious &ldquo;throw-it-to-him-in-the-high-post-and-let-him-do-stuff&rdquo; potential waiting to be untapped.&nbsp;
McGee remains one of the NBA&rsquo;s top lob threats, equipped with solid leaping ability and a silly catch radius. He uses those limbs to put back misses and swat shots on the other end. Fouls and an inability to navigate space limit his ceiling, though he&rsquo;d only be needed for 12-15 minutes with the second unit. His vertical spacing could be huge for a team that needs a little extra juice on the bench.

Nekias Duncan breaks down the Pacers' own free-agent decisions and suggests some players that Indiana should target at each position.