The Indiana Pacers are in second place in the Eastern Conference and have an excellent chance to win their first Central Division title in nine years.
Indiana (38-22) continued its recent solid play by defeating Chicago 97-92 on Sunday and leads third-place New York by one-half game in the East. The victory also pushed its Central lead over the Bulls to four games.
David West scored a season-high 31 points and George Hill added 21 for the Pacers, who haven't won a division title since 2003-04.
West is averaging 24.0 points over his last four games.
Indiana's offense, though, let it down in the first meeting with Boston as it shot a season-low 31.8 percent in a 94-75 loss Jan. 4. West and Paul George, who scored 10 points and shot 4 of 14 from the field Sunday, each hit only 4 of 18 shots.
The Pacers know they'll be in for another tough challenge despite not having to face Rajon Rondo, who is out for the season with a torn ACL.
Avery Bradley has stepped into a starting role since Rondo's injury, and he scored a season-high 22 points in Tuesday's 109-101 victory at Philadelphia as the Celtics (32-27) won their third straight.
Boston is in seventh place in the East but is only 1 1/2 games behind Chicago for fourth. Boston has won three straight and eight of the last 11 meetings with Indiana.
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