IN stymied the Raptors’ key players, DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry, and slowed the seemingly unstoppable Jonas Valanciunas. Turner is averaging 11.7 points on 61.5 per cent shooting with five rebounds and has been a handful for Toronto to guard. They pulled to within 12 points twice in the final frame, but couldn’t maintain any sort of momentum. “Our best offense is when we’re in attack mode and I don’t think we’re doing that enough”. Monta Ellis added 15 points, Solomon Hill added 13 points and George Hill chipped in with 10 points as the Pacers dominated the second half by 57-45 to come away with the crucial win.
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“That’s my big guy”.
“I wasn’t trying to hit him”, he said.
“When we felt like they were making runs, we kind of had great opportunities to answer back”, said George Hill. “He plays physical, he plays hard and it’s the playoffs”. “And I’ve been saying this all year, we’ve got to be the hungry team”.
DeRozan, the Raptors’ leading scorer in the regular season, had just eight points on 4-of-15 shooting and made six turnovers, and his air ball on a corner three-point attempt summed up his playoff series so far. We are not the players who we are in this league for no reason.
“That’s one thing I tell myself, the playoffs are definitely different”.
“I would be lying to you if I said I’m not upset with how I’m playing”, Lowry said. Of course, with all four games having been decided by double figures, the answer may be clear early as to which direction the series heads when the teams tip off on Tuesday. This is the third time the Raptors have been tied 2-2 in a best-of-seven series in their franchise history.
“No excuses made, we have to play better”, Lowry said by way of summary. “Most of my shots were dunks and shots under the rim where I just had to go up and dunk it. Today my teammates really did an awesome job of finding me. And neither is DeMar”. Toronto forced 10 IN turnovers IN the first half alone, and though Casey fretted postgame about the Pacers’ ability to get to the free throw line (Indiana went 27-33 from the stripe), his team established an early defensive identity that IN just could not overcome.
Paul George said the Pacers needed to play mad after dropping Game 3 on their home court. I wanted to have it completed yesterday but thought the tone might be a little more measured if I slept off the debacle that was Game 4.
It was a recipe that resulted in George never truly getting comfortable offensively (he finished with 25 points, but only went one for eight behind the arc), while Jonas Valanciunas and Bismack Biyombo were allowed to be bullies in the paint all night. Allen is averaging just two points and 4.3 rebounds in the series. Their lone post-season victory came in 2001 when they knocked off the New York Knicks.
The Raptors haven’t won a Playoff series since 2001, and with a blowout win on Saturday, the Pacers don’t seem inclined to let them end that drought easily. And they were more aggressive on the glass, too. Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck attended the game.
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Games 5 and 6 are guaranteed to be evening games.
