Raps lose game, Pacers lose star
Injury to Oladipo dampens Indiana’s 110-106 triumph over visiting Toronto team
INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Pacers won the battle on Wednesday night, but may have lost the war.
After dropping two games on the road to Toronto this season, including one featuring a massively blown late lead, the Pacers held on for a 110-106 victory against the Eastern Conference’s wins leader.
However, the game was marred by what appeared to be a significant right knee injury to Pacers all-star Victor Oladipo, who could be lost for the season, according to ESPN, pending an MRI on Thursday.
“Our hearts are hurting right now for Vic, but we’ve got to keep going for him,” said Darren Collison, who had 17 points and eight assists.
Thaddeus Young had 23 for the Pacers, including 12 in the final quarter. Serge Ibaka led Toronto with 23, while Kyle Lowry added 20.
But for at least one night, the Pacers could enjoy a bittersweet win against a rival.
Looking tired a night after beating Sacramento, the Raptors started slowly, struggling to shoot the ball, hitting only four three-pointers in the opening half.
The visitors matched that total in the third and trailed by nine, despite shooting just 38 per cent from the field against a Pacers team that had NBA blocked shots leader Myles Turner, something that wasn’t the case in the previous meeting, an easy Toronto win.
Raptors head coach Nick Nurse had said the presence of Turner changes things significantly since he makes the Indiana defence go, and that was apparent all evening long.
Collison said losing the team’s best player would have made it easy to have a letdown, but they made sure that didn’t happen.
Still, the teams fought tooth-and-nail in the fourth quarter.
Ibaka rebounded his own miss and kicked the ball out to Danny Green for a threepointer with 31.6 seconds remaining, cutting Indiana’s edge to just a single point in the fourth quarter.
But that was as close as the Raptors would get in a game that featured single-digit turnovers from both teams, including only seven by a Pacers squad that had coughed up the ball repeatedly in surrendering the big lead in the first meeting at Toronto.
“They’re going to pack the paint as much as they can and we’re going to have to shoot and score over the top of them some,” Nurse had said pregame.
That didn’t happen, with the Raptors barely topping 30 per cent from beyond the arc. The Raptors played for a third straight contest without Kawhi Leonard, who will return for Friday’s game at Houston having managed his load to everyone’s satisfaction. Leonard last played on Jan. 16 against Boston.
Sophomore forward OG Anunoby also could be back for that game, while centre Jonas Valanciunas looks to be in fine shape as he ramps up his conditioning work in advance of a potential February return.
SOMBRE MOMENT
The Oladipo injury came in stunning fashion. He went down awkwardly during the second quarter when his knee appeared to buckle while chasing Siakam after Lowry threw a long outlet pass. Siakam seemed to initially think it was a dirty play, then quickly realized something was horribly wrong, as did Turner. Veterans Cory Joseph and Thaddeus Young immediately sat at Oladipo’s side as a Pacers trainer, assisted by Raptors head athletic trainer Scott McCullough, covered up Oladipo’s injured knee. Oladipo stayed down for several minutes, surrounded by players from both teams. He eventually was secured on to a stretcher as the crowd chanted his name. Wiping away tears, the 26-year-old gave a thumbs-up as he was wheeled off court.
Oladipo had missed 11 games earlier this season due to an issue with that same right knee, though no structural damage was found.
He was expected to be named an all-star reserve next week for the second straight year and was averaging 19.2 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game.
GUARDS PAIR WELL
Fred VanVleet missed his first five shots of the game, but, generally, the six-foot point guard has played well alongside Lowry, who is of similar stature.
Whenever Leonard has sat out, VanVleet has usually been in the starting lineup, with Danny Green shifting to small forward.
“A couple of things. It helps Kyle a little bit, (VanVleet) can play on and off the ball, depending on what he chooses,” Nurse said.
“It maybe gives us one more attacker from the perimeter up the floor a little bit on the outlets. That gets us into our stuff a little quicker because it can go either way and Freddie and Kyle will get into some quick screen-and-roll stuff a little quicker than we do with Danny at the two, and now we have Kyle and Fred sharing that position. It’s important in our offence when we play a four-out system that we do have some early attacks and that really helps us.”
Our hearts are hurting right now for Vic, but we’ve got to keep going for him.” Indiana Pacers guard Darren Collison