The Portland Trail Blazers are on the road to face the Indiana Pacers in the final game of a five-game road trip. Portland is 1-3 so far in this stretch and hopes to end the road trip with a win over one of last season’s Eastern Conference finalists. The Blazers are battling a variety of injuries heading into this game (including new injuries to Donovan Clingan, Robert Williams and Matisse Thybulle), forcing them to play a shorter lineup in order to outplay the Pacers.

Indiana has struggled to stay afloat in the Eastern Conference so far this season. They are two games under .500 but are in seventh place in the conference. Two wins over the Washington Wizards and New Orleans Pelicans have lifted them to seventh place in the uncompetitive East.

Portland Trail Blazers (7-11) vs. Indiana Pacers (8-10) – Wed. Nov. 27 – 4:00 p.m. Pacific

How to watch via antenna or cable: See yours Options on Rip City Television Network

How to watch via streaming: BlazerVision in Oregon and Washington; League Pass everywhere else

Trail Blazers injuries: Jerami Grant, Kris Murray (questionable); Donovan Clingan, Robert Williams III, Scoot Henderson, Deandre Ayton, Matisse Thybulle, Bryce McGowens (Aus)

Pacers Injuries: Johnny Furphy (questionable); Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith, Ben Sheppard, Isaiah Jackson, James Wiseman (Aus)

Portland began the season with questions about how their center rotation would develop. They come into this game with the same question, but for very different reasons. With Clingan, Williams and Ayton, Portland’s four centers are down to one: Duop Reath. Deni Avdija recently showed he is capable of playing small ball five in a win over the Houston Rockets, but whether that level of play is sustainable for an entire game is another question. Luckily for the Blazers, the Pacers rank 27th out of 30 NBA teams in rebounding, making it unlikely that they will punish Portland with their size.

The Pacers are in the middle of a heated Eastern Conference race, where they currently hold the first play-in spot but only have a 1.5 game lead over the 12th-place Charlotte Hornets. There are only five teams in the Eastern Conference with a record of .500 or better, and the Pacers find themselves in that second team tier. With a long schedule that pits them against two teams that will finish bottom of their respective conferences in Portland and Washington – and a game against the league’s most injured team, the New Orleans Pelicans – Indiana is hoping to come away with three wins , to be just one game below that .500 threshold.

The Pacers employ Pascal Siakam and Myles Turner as their starting bigs. Neither player will be used as a regular back-to-the-basket finisher, but against a small Portland lineup, they could look to use their size to their advantage. If Indiana plays its normal brand of basketball, Avdija should be able to use his speed to pressure both players on the perimeter and make the size disadvantage less important.

What you should pay attention to

Three points. The Blazers lived and died with the three early this season. Although Portland is in the bottom five in both three-point shots and percentage, its record when making more three-pointers than its opponent is 6-2. The Pacers are a top-10 team in percentage from deep, but rank just 19th in makes per game. With Portland lacking depth in the middle due to injuries, the three-point shot becomes even more important for the Blazers to stay in the game. Portland’s path to victory tonight is to outscore the Pacers.

About the opponent

Indiana Pacers’ Eva Geitheim talks on SI about the impact former Blazers center Moses Brown had on a Pacers team in desperate need of a center.

The Indiana Pacers signed center Moses Brown less than a week ago, but he is already making his mark on the team. After James Wiseman and Isaiah Jackson both tore their Achilles tendons this season, he was in desperate need of center help. Brown has already played four games for the Pacers.

In his first week, Brown saw his workload gradually increase with the team. He played a total of 22 minutes in the Pacers’ last two games and had 15 points, four rebounds and a block in the Pacers’ win over the Washington Wizards on Sunday.