Toronto Raptors even Indiana series to 1-1
Off night for Durant as Mavericks beat OKC Thunder
TORONTO — The Toronto Raptors are best known for their All-Star guards Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan.
A major player in the first two games of their first-round series playoff series with the Indiana Pacers, however, has been center Jonas Valanciunas, who has been a work in progress in recent seasons.
Valanciunas led the Raptors with 23 points and grabbed 15 rebounds on Monday and the Raptors defeated the Pacers 98-87 to even the series at one win each.
“I was really happy for Jonas,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. “He got in foul trouble on Saturday. He gave us what we wanted him to give us.... but again it was a team effort.”
The victory ended a string of seven straight playoff losses by the Raptors dating to the 2014 first round.
Valanciunas scored 12 points and nabbed 19 rebounds before fouling out in Indiana’s win in the first game.
“They just made more plays,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said. “Their bench obviously had a strong impact. They dominated the paint and we didn’t get enough of an offensive rhythm in the second half, but there were a lot of reasons.”
Paul George led the Pacers with 28 points. He scored 33 points to lead the Pacers to the win in the opening game.
The Raptors led by as many as 18 points in the first half, but the Pacers trimmed that to four during the third quarter, which ended with Toronto leading by eight.
The Raptors regained their 18-point lead in the fifth minute of the fourth quarter and had the lead at 19 with less than five minutes to play.
Lowry added 18 points and dished out nine assists. DeRozan continues to struggle in the playoffs and did not play in the fourth quarter, finishing with 10 points.
Lowry said it started with the defense.
Cory Joseph contributed 16 points off the bench, and Patrick Patterson chipped in with 14 points for Toronto.
Monta Ellis added 15 points for Indiana.
The Raptors started DeMarre Carroll at forward instead of Norman Powell. But Powell soon was in the game after Carroll picked up two fouls in the first three minutes. Carroll finished with two points and Powell scored three. Both played well defensively.
Toronto led 27-16 at the end of the first quarter with Valanciunas leading the way with 13 points and seven rebounds.
The Raptors’ lead climbed to 18 early in the second quarter.
The Pacers trimmed the lead to five when Ellis completed a three-point play with a free throw with 4:41 to play in the half.
Toronto took a 53-48 lead into the intermission, as Valanciunas had 19 points and 10 rebounds in the first two quarters. George led Indiana with 13 first-half points and Ellis scored 12.
Toronto reserve forward Terrence Ross was kept out of the second half under concussion protocol. He had six points.
George cut the Toronto lead to four points on two free throws with 2: 43 to play in the third quarter.
Joseph made two free throws to close out the third-quarter scoring with Toronto leading 74-66.
Lowry made two free throws to bump Toronto’s lead to 11 points with 10:11 left in the fourth quarter. He added two more foul shots less than a minute later and the Raptors led by 13.
After a Pacers miss, the Raptors came back to score on a reverse layup by Joseph to take a 15-point lead.
Bismack Biyombo increase the lead to 18 points when he followed his dunk with a free throw.
Lowry made three free throws with 4:19 remaining to increase the lead to 19 points.
MAVS BEAT THUNDER
Raymond Felton scored 21 points and made the tiebreaking shot with 39 seconds left, lifting the Dallas Mavericks to an 85-84 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday to even the firstround Western Conference playoff series at a game apiece.
Felton shot eight-for-16 from the field to go along with 11 rebounds. Dirk Nowitzki added 17 points for Dallas, while Deron Williams scored 13.
Thunder forward Kevin Durant endured one of the worst shooting nights of his playoff career with a seven-for-33 outing for 21 points. Russell Westbrook posted 19 points, 14 rebounds and six assists. Game 3 is Thursday in Dallas. Trailing 69- 68, the Thunder went on an 8-0 run spearheaded by a Durant dunk and a threepointer from Serge Ibaka. It looked as if the Mavs were finally about to succumb to Oklahoma City’s talent.
However, Dallas responded with a 10-2 run to retake lead at 79-78 with 4:40 left.
After a free throw from Durant, the game was tied. Steven Adams put the Thunder ahead with a put-back off a Westbrook missed layup.
The score was 81-81 with 1:59 left. Westbrook turned the ball over, but Dallas guard Wesley Matthews missed a three-point attempt.
After another Thunder missed shot, Felton made Oklahoma City pay with a driving layup over Adams.
With 28 seconds left, the Thunder got the ball to Durant. As he made his move toward the basket, the ball flew out of bounds, but it was ruled to have gone off a Mavericks player.
Durant missed a three-pointer from the corner. Matthews chased down the loose ball and turned it into a fastbreak layup to give Dallas a four-point advantage. —