Game Rewind: Pacers 102, Raptors 107

In the first game against his former team, Pacers head coach Nate Bjorkgren had hoped to come away with a win over the Toronto Raptors on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, Indiana (9-7) fell just short of the mark, 107-102, in the first of a back-to-back series with Toronto.

With Indiana trailing 103-102 and 44.4 seconds remaining, Malcolm Brogdon attempted to drive left for a bucket against Fred VanVleet. Unfortunately, VanVleet got the best of Brogdon, tied up his hands, and forced a shot-clock violation. On the Pacers' last chance to tie, Domantas Sabonis was blocked twice. Toronto then finished off the Pacers at the charity stripe. The Raptors (7-9) have won nine of the last 11 meetings between the two clubs.

"I think that down the stretch, their defense stepped up," Myles Turner said postgame. "I can respect a team that steps up like that. I think they made two big plays back-to-back in our last two possessions. And they came away with it. You tip your cap and see them tomorrow."

It was a tough shooting night for the Indiana regulars, with Brogdon and Sabonis managing a combined 22 points on just 6-of-32 field goal attempts. Overall, the Blue & Gold finished 35-of-87 (40.2 percent) from the field, and just 13-of-39 from beyond the arc. Turner had a solid night, tallying 25 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including 4-of-7 from deep. Justin Holiday also finished strong by recording his first double-double of the season (16 points, 10 rebounds).

OG Anunoby had the top stat line of the night for the Raptors. The former Indiana Hoosier recorded a season-high 30 points on 9-of-16 shooting. He also sank eight of his 10 free throw attempts and tallied five steals.

"He did a great job on both ends of the floor," Justin Holiday said of Anunoby. "When you find guys that give everything they can on both ends like that — in my eyes guys like that are very special."

The performance didn't begin poorly for the Pacers, as the teams fought to a 24-24 tie at the end of one. Indiana shot a decent 10-of-19 from the field. Toronto found early success from beyond the arc, starting the game 4-of-4 from deep. Consecutive treys from Anunoby grabbed a 16-13 Raptors lead at the 6:50 mark of the first.

But the Pacers then clamped down defensively, holding Toronto to scoreless streaks of 2:45 and 3:38 in the latter half of the frame. Turner added a pair of blocks to aid the effort.

However, they could not take advantage of Toronto's scoreless streaks. The Blue & Gold found just one bucket in the final 2:55 when Aaron Holiday matched a Malachi Flynn layup with 28.3 seconds left.

The second frame told a different story. Indiana went cold, finishing just 5-of-22 from the floor and committing eight uncharacteristic turnovers. The performance allowed the Raptors to end the first half with a lead.

The Blue & Gold briefly held a 37-36 lead midway through the second as part of a small 6-0 spurt. However, Toronto responded quickly with an 8-0 run of their own. Indiana fell behind 45-37 with 5:28 to play.

Indiana managed to trim Toronto's lead to four on two occasions before the Raptors put together an 11-4 run over a 2:36 span that pushed their lead to double digits for the first time. Justin Holiday's steal and slam at the 1:29 mark provided some spark. But a pair of VanVleet free throws with 3.2 seconds pushed Toronto's lead back to 58-47 before the break.

Things appeared to take a turn for the better late in the third. After Norman Powell's layup with 4:16 left pushed Toronto's lead to 75-62, Indiana rattled off a 13-2 run to finish the frame. With under 30 seconds to play, Turner finished an and-one play to cut the deficit to five, 77-72. He then swatted away Boucher's layup attempt on the defensive end. Jeremy Lamb then picked up the ensuing rebound and sprinted down the court. With 1.9 seconds to go, he finished a gritty and-one layup to cut the deficit to just two heading into the final frame.

Lamb continued with effort early in the fourth, firing a trey to give Indiana a 78-77 lead, its first of the second half. But the lead was shortly lived. Boucher soon responded with a three that pushed Toronto ahead 82-80 with 10:28 to go.

After the Raptors stretched the lead to 91-84, Indiana fought back and stayed competitive this time.

At the 5:47 mark, the Blue & Gold rattled off an 11-4 run after Justin Holiday drilled a deep shot-clock beating three. Brogdon then nailed his first and only three of the afternoon, while Turner followed suit to cut the deficit to 94-93 with 4:06 to play.

Later, With Toronto leading 98-94, T.J. McConnell found Turner for an and-one alley-oop to pull Indiana to within one again. After Anunoby tallied a 3-pointer in response, Turner drilled one of his own to pull within one with 1:40 remaining. Brogdon's layup at 1:09 would tie things up a 102 apiece.

Anunoby hit one of two free throws to give Toronto a one-point lead. After the ball was tapped out of bounds by Toronto, Indiana had to work with an eight-second shot clock. Brogdon isolated VanVleet and drove left. But VanVleet got the best of him, holding on for those precious seconds.

Anunoby pushed Toronto's lead to 105-102 via free throws, and Indiana had one more chance. But two late putback attempts from Sabonis were blocked. Toronto then finished the game at the charity stripe.

T.J. McConnell matched his season high with eight points and added seven assists with only one turnover in 24 minutes off the bench.

Jeremy Lamb reached double figures in scoring for the third time in as many outings with 13 points on 5-for-9 shooting

Domantas Sabonis finished the day shooting 1-for-10 from the field, but shot 8-for-8 from the free-throw line to finish with 10 points to go with 19 rebounds for his 16th straight double-double.

"Not during the game. We gave the wave there before the game, and that's the respect that we give each other — that I give him. Then (I waved) after the game. But during that thing, it was very competitive out there. It'll be that same way tomorrow." –Bjorkgren on exchanging pleasantries with his mentor, Raptors head coach Nick Nurse

"It's weird. You play a team, but never back-to-back. So, it's certainly different. But we just gave to focus on the things that we do well, clean up the things that we didn't tonight, and come out fresh tomorrow." -McConnell on playing the same team twice in consecutive days

"I'm just trusting my shot. It's a little difficult shooting with that pad thing. But it's all about repetition, game reps, and whatnot. My shot's falling right now, so I'm going to keep continuing to be aggressive." –Turner on playing confidently through his hand injury.

Indiana committed a season-high 19 turnovers that led to 26 points for Toronto

The Pacers will host the Raptors for the second time in as many nights on Monday, Jan. 25 at 7:00 PM ET.

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