Raptors oust Pacers, advance in playoffs
Toronto takes series’ deciding game despite Indiana Pacers’ persistence
There have to be easier ways to exorcise your demons, but the Toronto Raptors will take it.
A 89-84 win in a rollicking, desperate Game 7 against the Indiana Pacers, a victory that never felt comfortably in hand even as the Raptors played with a lead for the entire second half, gave Toronto a 4-3 series win, putting it into the second round of the NBA playoffs for only the second time in franchise history.
They didn’t play scared, they didn’t play like a team weighed down by its history of playoff failures, and they still didn’t play the kind of game their fans have been waiting to see. But buoyed by 30 points from DeMar DeRozan, the usual excellent bench play and another tough performance from a one-armed Kyle Lowry, the Raptors managed to rise to the moment. Even a disastrous stretch in the closing minutes didn’t kill them.
Every time something good happened for them in this series, coach Dwane Casey said they couldn’t exhale. Given the embarrassing playoff exits of the past two years, he said, they hadn’t earned the right to breathe easy. They have, now. Just a little. The Raptors came into the deciding game smack in the middle of two distinct and competing trends. The first is the history of home teams in NBA Game 7s. They were 98-24, collectively, heading into Sunday night’s game, and 7-1 over the last three seasons, with the only loss coming from the Raptors in 2014.
The most recent Game 7 came on Sunday afternoon, where the Miami Heat jumped out to a 12-point lead against Charlotte at the half and blew it up to a 30-point lead by the end of the third quarter. The final score was 106-73, a comprehensive dismantling of a team that shared the same 48-win record with the Heat during the regular season.
This is what home teams are supposed to do in an NBA Game 7: Win, and usually easily. Homecourt-advantage teams generally have a big edge in basketball — just this season, Cleveland swept Detroit, Atlanta beat Boston in six games, and Miami came back from a 2-3 deficit to put away Charlotte. In the West, San Antonio swept Memphis, Oklahoma City beat Dallas in five games, and Golden State beat Houston in five despite losing MVP Steph Curry. Only the Los Angeles Clippers were upset, and they lost their two best players to injury.
League history, then, gave a huge edge to the Raptors. But this was also a team that was drilled by the Pacers in Games 4 and 6, and needed a wild comeback in the fourth quarter of Game 5 to pull that one out.
Despite coming into the series as a decisive favourite, the Raptors had been severely outplayed in three straight games. Add in the Raptors’ own tortured playoff history, and it was impossible to predict what would happen in Game 7. League-wide, teams rise to the occasion in Game 7s at home, but the Raptors, playing poorly already, are a team that has wilted during the big moments. Something had to give.
And it did. After a tentative start in their last appearance at the Air Canada Centre in Game 5, the Raptors used the roaring crowd to their advantage early in Game 7, forcing three Indiana turnovers amid the din.
DeRozan, who had been woeful for most of the series, started hot, with 11 points in the first six minutes. Lowry, also plagued by poor shooting over the first six games, instead came out looking to create offence. He had three early assists as Toronto held a fivepoint lead after one quarter. Given the way the Pacers had rolled the Raptors over long stretches, it was a start that calmed Toronto’s collective, frazzled nerves.
The Raptors’ depth was the story of the second quarter, with rookie Norm Powell providing 10 points in a stellar 12 minutes. DeRozan cooled off, Lowry didn’t look like himself, and Indiana’s Paul George was lurking with 17 points, but the Raptors held a 50-44 lead at the half. It was not at all what Casey had likely drawn up, but he would take it.
The second half began with another demonstration of the Raptors’ deep lineup. Patrick Patterson, the super-sub who had become a less-than-super starter in the series, hit a pair of threepointers, to go with another from DeMarre Carroll. The spurt gave Toronto a 15-point lead which, to the surprise of no one that has watched momentum die over the previous six games, was quickly back to single digits.
Every time the Raptors pulled away, the Pacers reeled them back in. It was DeRozan, inconceivably, who authored the biggest push. An impossibly difficult jumper, followed by a baseline spin move for ages, pushed the lead back to 13. The building was shaking as DeRozan bellowed in celebration.
It was more of the same in the fourth. Big shots from Powell and Patterson. A raucous crowd that felt the breakthrough was at hand. The Pacers wouldn’t go away. When the final horn sounded, the building exploded. It was two-thirds relief, one-third disbelief.
Perhaps those percentages should be reversed.