After meeting the Western Conference Challenger in the first three dates for their four-game home, Indiana Pacers closes the set on Wednesday with its fighting eastern conference counterparts, Toronto Raptors.
Indiana began her challenging home with victories over Memphis (127-113) on Thursday and a 129-111 route by Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday. However, NBA’s most valuable players contributed Nikola Jokic’s 18-point, 19-assistance efforts to the red hot Denver who snapped a three-game Pacers winning line on Monday in a decision of 125-116.
Indiana strives to bounce back against a Toronto team that disappears in 13th place in the east. Despite Raptor’s struggle, including releasing Tuesday’s legs by a back-to-back vs. Boston, 111-101, pointed pacers coach Rick Carlisle to Indiana’s difficulties with Toronto in Matchups in early season.
“Toronto is a big, physical team that we have had many problems with,” Carlisle said.
Raptors won the two previous meetings: the first in November (130-119) and the second in December (122-111). Both were played in Toronto. RJ Barrett scored 39 and 29 points in the two previous meetings, while Scottie Barnes went for 35 points in the December meeting.
Barrett enters Indiana with a five-match line by scoring at least 20 points. He is an average of 21.9 points per match after Tuesday’s 22-point effort, but at 1-for-5 against Boston had his worst 3-point shooting performance in February.
“Sometimes you make pictures, sometimes you don’t,” Barrett told reporters after the game. “They just didn’t lose today. I think even with that we were still playing hard and we were still playing well.”
Toronto has lost seven of his last nine matches with Tuesday’s loss, which followed a route 127-109 Phoenix on Sunday. Raptors took Miami to overtime in a loss of 120-111 on Friday.
Toronto is currently playing without Jakob Poeltl, a linchpin to the size Carlisle said Indiana problems. Poeltl’s status for Wednesday is uncertain due to a hip injury that has held him out since last played on February 4. Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic told reporters before Tuesday’s game that the center is “very close” to a return.
Rookie Jonathan Mogbo made his fifth start since February 7 in Poeltl’s void in the center during Tuesday’s loss. Mogbo finished with four points, four returns, two steals and two assists.
Former Raptor Pascal Siakam leads Indiana’s efforts on the interior towards Toronto. Siakam is on average team heights of 20.4 points and 7.3 returns per match after his 19-point, nine-Rebound showing against Denver.
On Sunday versus Clippers, Siakam has played its first double double since February 7 and went for 12 points and 12 returns. His emphasis after Monday, however, was that Indiana would recover from an uncharacteristic 18-cross evening.
“It’s not us. We have to fix it,” Siakam said.
Pacers on average the fifth-fewaste turnover per match in the league at 13.4. That number is partly a proof of the game of Tyrese Haliburton.
Although Haliburton’s assists per match is down from a season ago, when he was on average an NBA leading 10.9 per match, now at 8.7, he commits 1.8 turnover a competition, down from 2.3 years 2023-24 .
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