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Where as the Pacers are confident that the acquisition of point guard Darren Collison will eventually lead the franchise back to the playoffs, the performance of Danny Granger and company in the preseason suggested that it might take some time to get everyone on the same page. Thus, the Indiana Pacers will try to doge a bullet when they face Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday at 0:30 a.m. GMT.

Albeit off-season acquisition Tiago Splitter is still sidelined by an injury, the Spurs' front-office is hoping for the Brazilian center to become an impact player down the stretch. While San Antonio's preseason performance was not spectacular, coach Greg Popovich still made some progress as far as figuring out the team's rotation is concerned. Especially forward-center DeJuan Blair might be ready for a bigger role after averaging 12.6 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.7 assists in just 25 minutes per game. Likewise, the Spurs will need more out of Richard Jefferson than last year in order to become a legitimate championship contender in 2010-11. Yet, despite these issues, there appears to be no doubt that San Antonio will enter its matchup with the Pacers as favorites on opening night.

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