Yellow gold t-shirts that read “United State of Basketball” were draped over each of the 18,000 seats.
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Bismack Biyombo may have played one of his best playoff games on Wednesday morning, and the Toronto Raptors are now on the brink of Semi-Finals berth.
Paul George’s performance wasn’t the only one wasted.
“It’s a desperation feeling”, George said. We’re serious about this season.
Drake, who is dubbed an official Toronto Raptors ambassador, can then be seen clapping furiously behind Stuckey.
For their part, the Pacers woke up at the end of the quarter and scored seven of their nine in the last two minutes and change.
Paul George led IN with 39 points.
With his Pacers leading by 13, Frank Vogel considered changing his rotation heading into the fourth. However, the home team has played far better than the road team. We didn’t do it as well in the second half. It’s a 48-minute game.
Toronto’s previous largest comeback in a playoff game was eight points in the first round against Detroit in 2002. On the next possession, Powell – a rookie, drafted No. 46 last June – picked off a pass intended for George, went coast to coast, leapt from just outside the dotted line and threw down a thunderous dunk to tie the game at 92. You just try to lock in and come back, playing fast. “At that time it got caught in the wrong place”, coach Doc Rivers said. “We had a decent lead, but I thought we could hold up”. “We’re going to play that game as if it was Game 7 and that’s just the mindset”. “Everything doesn’t always go the way you want it to go”.
From there, the Raptors dug down deep and pulled off arguably the most memorable and important quarter in team history. We believe in ourselves. It’s going to be a long series.
“I was thinking, two hands?”
Lotta game balls to go around, starting with DeMar DeRozan. “I think we played nervous, played on our heels and failed to finish at the basket”.
With exception of Solomon Hill, the Pacers bench has not been good in this series. Yes, he should have pulled the bench sooner, but blame also goes to Rodney Stuckey (1 of 10), C.J. Miles (2 of 8) and Ty Lawson (0 of 1 – 0 assists) for being so bad. Miles is just 2-for-16 from three point range (12.5%).
“He’s such a great scorer”, said Casey. We haven’t really been able to be the way we wanted to be or the way we were coming into the playoffs. We’re supposed to do our job, maintain that lead, extend that lead. That’s the biggest thing. Stayed physical, battled strong, played hard without fouling. They’re going to change the game, different lineup, more pressure, more 3’s, quicker shots.
The Pacers must win round six of this fight to keep their season going. “We’re focused on this opportunity that we have now with this new team, these new faces, this new coaching staff and this brand new opportunity”.
How should Raptors fans feel after winning Game 5? From a playoff statistical standpoint, the victor of Game 5’s in a best-of-seven series would go onto win 85 percent of the time.
In Atlanta, the Hawks staged a big turnaround in its shooting to get right on top of Boston.
Toronto wasn’t eager to re-visit being in this position against Brooklyn two years ago, when it lost Game 6 on the road and Game 7 at home.
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Should the Raptors succeed on stealing game six from the Pacers, it will be their first time to make the second round since the 2000-2001 season.
