After winning Game 1, there definitely was a sense that the Toronto Raptors, losers of their first-round series for two seasons in a row, could be in trouble once again.
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Added DeRozan: “We’ve just got to keep building, every single game, keep building, keep continuing to get better on both ends, and once we get that rhythm, it’s going to be tough to beat us”, he said.
James Harden scored 35 points, including the game-winner with 2.7 seconds left, and the Houston Rockets took advantage of Stephen Curry’s absence to get a 97-96 victory over the Golden State Warriors in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series on Thursday night.
Toronto’s defence was outstanding, particularly the job DeMarre Carroll did most of the night on Indiana’s Paul George.
Ty Lawson and C.J. Miles remained seated in their gold shirts, like the other 18,165 witnesses to this tepid version of playoff basketball. We’re failing to be the physical team … They would look like the team we all thought preseason was a potential contender. PG had a double-double thanks to the 10 rebounds he had to go along with 6 assists. It was that kind of a night for the Pacers.
And no one was there to pick up the slack.
Game 4 will be Saturday in IN, and it’s absolutely a must-win for the Pacers.
Something has to change with the first unit, although any moves now would be of the porcine lipstick variety. To further demonstrate how much George is carrying the load for the Pacers, it is worth mentioning that he outscored the rest of the starting unit in Game 2 by a 28-26 margin and scored just five fewer points than the bench.
However, the team itself is just not at a championship level… yet. It makes him feel good to not be anxious about Valanciunas, about his own security, about his team’s history of post-season defeat, about all the winds that have blown around this team to get to this playoff place. George Hill remains quietly settled into the role of non-shooting guard. “We’re not coming out aggressive”. “There are so many things that we could do better – the fouling, they shoot 33 free throws to 16, there’s something we’re not doing right in getting that many free throws”.
The second unit has been even worse.
It will be the second straight game that last year’s MVP has missed after he was injured in the series opener.
Out of all three of the starters in Monday night’s loss whose play was subpar, Hill played the most minutes.
IN shot 38 percent, committed 17 turnovers and was outrebounded for the third game in a row, 45-38.
The Indiana Pacers and Toronto Raptors shift their series to Indianapolis tonight for Game 3 at 7:30PM ET.
When you have that big an edge in quantity, the quality doesn’t really matter.
The Raptors coaching staff and its player rectified those mistakes in an emphatic way, holding George to just one of eight from behind the arc, and out rebounding the Pacers 15 to nine on offensive rebounds.
The Pacers can’t stop Bismack Biyombo or Jonas Valanciunas.
Knowing DeRozan still stands to play better should give the Raptors reason to be even more optimistic than they already are following a comprehensive victory.
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Toronto coach Dwane Casey said Terrence Ross will be available Thursday.
