RAPTORS ROLL TO LARGEST VICTORY IN TEAM HISTORY
Defending champions dominate from opening tipoff to beat Pacers by 46 points
There was another embarrassing performance at Scotiabank Arena this weekend, but unlike Saturday night’s Maple Leafs all-time stinker, it wasn’t the home side turning it in this time around.
No, the Raptors made Indiana look like a team pulled off of the street for some big league action, pummelling the Pacers 127-81.
The 46-point margin of victory was the biggest in Toronto’s 25 seasons in the NBA, eclipsing a 44-point win over Atlanta in 2016. Playing Indiana for the third time in February, Toronto ran out to a 15-1 lead in the opening minutes, with the Pacers missing nine straight shots and things didn’t get much better for the visitors from there.
Toronto led 34-12 after a quarter, 63-32 after a half (the second-best Raptors half of the season) and 85-55 after 36 minutes. Toronto had that 30-point edge despite only making two more three-pointers than Indiana through three, before hitting eight fourth-quarter treys to turn a laugher into whatever is the next notch after one of those.
As good as Toronto has played all year?
“Ooh, probably yeah, flying and executing the coverages, ball was popping, and every single guy that went in there was on, ready to go,” said head coach Nick Nurse.
Serge Ibaka (15 points, 15 rebounds) agreed with his coach, in part because the Raptors never took their feet off of the necks of their opponents.
“We set a tone earlier, normally when we start good like this we kind of relax, but tonight as a team we did a great job staying focused on us and keep working together,” Ibaka said.
The big man was superb, rolling again as the starter in place of the injured Marc Gasol.
Kyle Lowry (16 points, 11 assists, seven rebounds) and Pascal Siakam (21 points) were also dominant for Toronto.
“His compete level, I’ve never coached or seen anybody play as hard as this guy does in basketball, it’s the ultimate compliment and it rubs off on the other guys, and not only does he do it that way, he plays it smart, he knows the coverages, he knows the opponents, he studies film, he gives his body up,” Nurse said of his captain and point guard, Lowry.
The Pacers shot 4-for-24
(17 per cent) in the opening quarter and without former all-star Victor Oladipo and later his backup Jeremy Lamb, who got hurt in the second quarter, looked completely lost. Toronto’s defenders were swarming, covering every inch of the court.
When the Pacers put the ball on the floor, a Raptor would swoop in like the namesake dinosaur and snatch it away. There were shades of Kawhi Leonard in OG Anunoby’s defensive game. Ibaka turned in one of the best performances of his career; Lowry had his offence going and Siakam followed up a good game on Friday with another big outing.
“I think our tempo and pace was really good,” Lowry said.
“I think we gotta keep it going. I think that’s the one thing that is to our advantage is our pace and our tempo and getting mismatches, and getting Pascal down the floor early, getting shots early, getting Serge to trail for some threes, and just kind of playing with open space more.”
Pacers head coach Nate Mcmillan lamented that his team couldn’t match Toronto’s intensity.
“That’s a wake-up call, man,” Mcmillan said.
“I mean, that team is playing for something big and they showed us what February, March, April, if you can get into May and June, what it’s going to look like and what you got to play against.”
Tuesday’s much-anticipated meeting with Nba-leading Milwaukee in Toronto should be far more fascinating than Sunday’s carnage.