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Raptors vs Pacers Thursday Prediction

It was fun to squint and pretend for a game, but now the eyes are wide-open and staring into a bleak reality. The Raptors were the ones diving on the ground for the ball and being physical, and the Pacers were the ones playing carelessly.

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The improved defensive effort for the Pacers in the third quarter created opportunities for in, but while in may have played like the 3rd best defensive team, they responded by playing like the 25th ranked offensive team, struggling to threaten Toronto, heading into the fourth down 71-59. He was notably able to tally a 40 percent success rate from long range as well Thursday, after going 1-for-12 from beyond the arc in the first pair of first-round tilts versus the Pacers.

The Raptors lead the best-of-7 first-round series 2-1 and have reclaimed the home-court advantage they squandered by losing the series opener last weekend.

“We did have a pretty poor second quarter”, George said. The Raptors led the regular season series 3-0 and the playoff series is tied at 1-1.

And no one was there to pick up the slack.

Now the Pacers have the home court advantage for Games 3 and 4, and they would want to fully utilize that and shorten the series. By far not their greatest showing, and yet the Raptors still closed up George (6-of-19 shooting) and cashed 17 turnovers into 26 points.

The fact of the matter is, the best two teams in the entire National Basketball Association are in the Western Conference.

Turner started the second half in place of Lavoy Allen and played with energy for 7 points, 4 rebounds and 2 blocks through the quarter.

“It’s definitely frustrating”, Pacers forward Solomon Hill said.

“The angle of our screens, the type of screens we were setting for him, hopefully loosened him up a bit”, Casey said. We’re not coming out swinging. “Our best offense is when we’re in attack mode and I don’t think we’re doing that enough”. Though in watching the second unit, it’s hard to really find a player who’s going to help out.

While it maybe lights out inside the empty ACC, the Ford Fan Zone at Maple Leaf Square (outside of Gates 5 and 6) will rev up, showing the game on the big screen along with providing plenty of game-related excitement such as playoff ticket giveaways, the Raptors mascot and the Raptors Dance Pak. IN has held Toronto under 100 points and 43 per cent shooting in both games. The Pacers had chances to cut into single figures, but timely shots by Toronto killed any sense of momentum by the Pacers.

2 seed also continued to bludgeon IN on the offensive glass, 15-9, after entering Game 3 with a 32-15 edge IN that department through the series’ first two showdowns.

The Raptors scored 17 first-half points as the result of Pacers’ turnovers and 16 points from DeRozan and nine points and six assists from Lowry. In Game 1, George scored 33 points on 12-for-22 shooting to go along with six rebounds and four assists.

The Pacers can’t stop Bismack Biyombo or Jonas Valanciunas.

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It was Toronto’s most complete post-season game in franchise history, and a message sent loud and clear: their season wasn’t a fluke and their past doesn’t define them.

Pacers v. Raptors? More like George v. Valanciunas