Indiana Pacers coach Frank Vogel is replacing Lavoy Allen with rookie Myles Turner in the starting lineup for Saturday’s Game 4 against the Toronto Raptors. Guards Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan each scored 21 points on Thursday as the Raptors posted a 101-85 victory for a 2-1 lead and another win on Indiana’s home floor would leave the seventh-seeded Pacers in a serious hole.
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The Toronto Raptors and the Indiana Pacers collide in a crucial Game 4 today at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
Turner is shooting a team-high 62% in the playoffs, averaging 11.7 points and five rebounds a game in his first postseason series. The Raptors have outrebounded the Pacers by an average of 10.7 in the series and outscored them in the paint by 13.3 per game. Toronto has a 2-1 lead in this series.
DeRozan scored 12 points in the first quarter in Game 3 as he quickly set the tone that he was going to erase the 10-of-37 shooting funk he experienced in the first two games.
Nicola has now been arrested (can’t blame a guy for trying?), and DeRozan has returned in the form of smart shot selections, and knowing when to pass off to his teammates.”Once I get going and the shots start falling, it’s a scary sight for whoever we play”, DeRozan predicted at practice Tuesday morning in Toronto. IN may be the heartland of basketball, but Toronto, presently, is far more excited about its team than Indianapolis is about the Pacers.
Expect a tightly contested matchup between two highly skilled defensive teams.
Scoring from the line helps Indiana’s offensive efficiency as they struggle to score in the half court and haven’t hit three pointers consistently since Game 1. We’re treating this like it’s a regular season game. “We’re just going to take it from there, and do some more treatment tonight and it will be like I never played 35 minutes before”. “I don’t think in Game 1 we played to our identity and even Game 2. We have to match his physicality, and we’re not doing that right now”, George said. So they came out and started swinging haymakers first.
“It’s the playoffs. Sometimes you’ve got to let stuff slide”. Toronto coach Dwane Casey had said before the series tipped off that his charges needed to be prepared for the Pacers’ swarming defence, which he described in terms that sounded a lot like he expected the Raptors to be wrestling a lion: “Hitting, holding, slashing, ripping”.
Paul George sat sweating – steaming, actually – in his leather armchair and all but burned a hole with his focus on the single-page box score he held in his left hand.
And please spare me the thought that this wouldn’t be happening if David West was still on the team. He still is only 25 years old, awesome given that he played two years at Fresno State and is in his sixth National Basketball Association season.
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“Hopefully as group we respond pissed off”, George said. The checks cash all the same and they are well versed in overcoming that season-ending loss. Matthew Scianitti has more on the team’s gameplan heading into Game 4. “We have to be that team”.
