NBA looking ahead: Pacers vs. Clippers

Indiana center Roy Hibbert is defended by Washington guard John Wall on Nov. 29. Hibbert and the Pacers lead the Eastern Conference with a record of 15-1 before heading into their Sunday matchup with the Clippers at Staples Center.

By Ben Bolch

Nov. 30, 2013 12 AM PT

INDIANA AT CLIPPERS

When: 12:30 p.m. Sunday.

TV: Prime Ticket.

Clippers center DeAndre Jordan has said he wants to go for it. Pacers center Roy Hibbert has tweeted a similar desire.

An NBA title? Well, of course they would like that, but the big men have also expressed a strong yearning to win the league’s defensive-player-of-the-year award.

Hibbert ranks second in the league with 3.8 blocked shots per game and Jordan is fifth with 2.3. It probably also helps Hibbert’s cause that the Pacers are holding opponents to a league-low 85.6 points a game and have yielded 100 points only once, to the Chicago Bulls.

The Clippers are averaging 106.8 points but again may be without point guard Chris Paul, who is questionable because of a strained right hamstring.

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Ben Bolch

Ben Bolch has been a Los Angeles Times staff writer since 1999. He is serving his second stint as the UCLA beat writer, which seems fitting since he has covered almost every sports beat except hockey and horse racing. Bolch is also the author of the recently released book “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” He previously covered UCLA basketball from 2010-11 before going on to cover the NBA and the Clippers for five years. He happily traded in gobs of hotel points and airline miles to return to cover UCLA basketball and football in the summer of 2016. Bolch was once selected by NBA TV’s “The Starters” as the “Worst of the Week” after questioning their celebrity journalism-style questions at an NBA All-Star game and considers it one of his finer moments.

NBA looking ahead: Pacers vs. Clippers

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