Raptors can’t keep it going
Five-game win streak ends in OT loss to the Pacers,
The Raptors may be down a few men, but they’ve proven they can never be counted out.
Missing three of their top six players with injuries, and visiting an Eastern Conference rival on the second night of a back-to-back, a letdown would hardly be a surprise for most teams. Instead, they battled the Indiana Pacers with a depleted roster and forced overtime before falling 120-115 — snapping the Raptors’ win streak at five.
Kyle Lowry, already vying for a repeat as Eastern Conference player of the week after earning last week’s honour, led the Raptors with 30 points in 43 minutes.
“We gutted it out,” Lowry told reporters after the game. “We played our butts off, gave ourselves a chance to win at the end and unfortunately we came up short.”
A slow first half seemed to signal the Raptors were on the way to their first loss since announcing Pascal Siakam (groin), Norman Powell (shoulder) and Marc Gasol (hamstring) would be out indefinitely — one day after erasing a 30point deficit for the largest comeback in franchise history against the Mavericks.
They went 2-for-19 from threepoint range in the first half and were lucky to be trailing by 10 at the break. It took just over four second-half minutes to better that output, though, thanks to a 3-for-3 start from Lowry and OG Anunoby. The visitors erased a 15-point deficit by aborting a man-to-man defence, which at times looked tired and sloppy, in favour of zone D. Each team put six fast-break points on the board in the first half, but the Raptors pulled away in that category in the second — 16-6.
Lowry helped Toronto make a game of it with 14 points in the third quarter: 5-for-7 from the field, including 4-for-5 from beyond the arc. Fred VanVleet and Terence Davis Jr., cold for most of the early going, also found their touch from long range as the clock ticked down and the teams traded leads.
“We came to life there — four, five minutes into the second half — and really controlled most of the game from there,” said Raptors coach Nick Nurse, who made his displeasure about the officiating known several times. “We got ourselves a five-point lead and probably should have put it away there, but give them credit. They hit a bunch of threes late.”
Myles Turner and Aaron Holiday each had five threes for an Indiana team that went 18for-42 from beyond the arc. Twelve of the Pacers’ 13 points in overtime came from deep, after Lowry had missed a chance to win it at the buzzer in regulation. Lowry has 62 points and 19 assists in the past two games.
> Fan vs. Lowry: A Pacers fan was ejected in the second quarter after appearing to yell something at Lowry, who had to be held back by teammate Rondae Hollis-Jefferson before pointing out the culprit to officials. Lowry declined comment on the incident after the game. Pacers president Kevin Pritchard shook hands with the fan before he left Bankers Life FieldHouse.
> Help me — Rondae: Hollis-Jefferson took a foot to the face teammate from Serge Ibaka on a dunk in the first half, knocking him to the floor for a couple of minutes. It was one of three scary landings on the night for Hollis-Jefferson.
> Up next: Toronto fans must be on Santa’s nice list. Wednesday marks the first Christmas Day home game in Raptors history, with the defending champions hosting the Boston Celtics — the opener of the NBA’s annual five-game holiday slate. The Celtics squad will include Turkish centre Enes Kanter, with an assist from the Canadian government.
In a column published in the Globe and Mail, Kanter — an outspoken critic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which he blames for having his passport revoked in 2017 — thanked Canadian officials for giving him the green light to play north of the border.