The Denver Nuggets and the Indiana Pacers faced off this Thursday in front of a sell-out crowd at The O2 arena.
Both teams landed in London on Monday before taking in the famous sights of the nation’s capital, alongside an abundance of media and community events.
And if that was not hectic enough for the coaches and players, they also needed to quickly acclimatise themselves whilst preparing for what should be another special game in the UK.
Enthusiasm
Speaking to Rising East during a practice session at The O2, Indiana Pacers veteran guard Aaron Brooks explained his enthusiasm towards travelling to Europe for the first time despite the long distance travel:
“I’m excited, it’s my first time here in Europe and I just want to have my first basket on a different soil. I’m just getting adjusted [to the time difference], I’m getting there, I’m slowly getting used to the european clock a little bit.”
The Pacers have been playing well as of late, behind impressive performances from Paul George and Jeff Teague who have rallied their team to a current five-game winning streak heading into the matchup.
Struggles
As for the Denver Nuggets, they have seen severe struggles in a season full of ups and downs, and are sitting on an undesirable five-game losing streak.
It’s all positive for the Pacers, and during a season-changing winning streak, Brooks has lauded his teammates efforts that has seen them surge into a playoff spot. He hopes that the time off has not affected his teams’ rhythm:
“We’ve been playing well and we just want to keep it going. We had a few days off and hopefully it doesn’t affect how we’ve been playing. But overall, we’re playing better basketball so hopefully we don’t forget how we’ve been playing since we’ve been off for so long but in this league – everybody is so close, a few games and you can be out of the playoffs.”