The Indiana Pacers will head to Boston on Friday to take on the Celtics at TD Garden.

The Pacers (45-40) enter Friday's contest in a major slide, losing five of their last six games; all of which came against Western Conference opponents. Now, the team holds just a one-game lead over the Celtics (44-31) for the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference standings and the all-important home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Unfortunately for Indiana, this crucial game that decides who has a leg up in the season series comes on the road, where the team has managed to find no success recently. Following their loss Wednesday in Oklahoma City, the Pacers have now lost a staggering nine games in a row away from home. This quickly dropped their once promising road record of 17-12 to 17-21 in just over a month. And the last time Indiana made the trip to Boston this season, they got hammered by the Celtics, 135-108.

Those Celtics, however, haven't exactly been cruising. They won their most recent outing by 10 points against the lowly Celtics, but prior to that, the team had lost four games in a row while locker room issues began to emerge. If it wasn't for the Pacers going on a losing streak of their own, this situation in Boston would likely look a lot worse than it already is. Nevertheless, despite everything, the Celtics now have an opportunity Thursday night to take back the No. 4 seed from an Indiana team that has been without star guard Victor Oladipo (knee) for months now. What makes the situation even better for Boston is the fact that they should have a fully healthy rotation Thursday, as Kyrie Irving is coming off a night off in Cleveland, while Al Horford, who has missed two of the last three games with a knee injury, is listed as probable for the contest.