Pacers at Raptors
All-Star forward Paul George and the Indiana Pacers delivered the
opening salvo and look to make it two consecutive road victories when
they face the Toronto Raptors on Monday. George poured in 33 points in
Saturday's 100-90 victory and Indiana attempts to continue the playoff
woes of the Raptors.
Second-seeded Toronto hasn't won a playoff series since 2001 and has dropped its last seven postseason games, which includes last season's four losses to the Washington Wizards. "As a team, as a whole, I thought we were tight," Raptors coach Dwane Casey told reporters. "I know our team did not play to our identity, but I know we'll come back Monday night and play to our identity." The seventh-seeded Pacers plan to ride the coattails of George in this series and he is intent on making a mark in his first postseason appearances since badly breaking his right leg in the summer of 2014. "Paul's shot-making at the end of the game was spectacular," Indiana coach Frank Vogel told reporters in reference to George's 27 second-half points. "It's been a long road for him in terms of actually getting back to the court but before his injury, we were in the conference finals."
TV: 7 p.m. ET, NBATV, FSN Indiana, Sportsnet (Toronto)
ABOUT THE PACERS: George said after the Game 1 victory that he is still working on getting to be as strong physically as he was prior to the devastating injury that required an arduous recovery. "Some days I felt great, felt like I could have started that night," George told reporters. "Some days I wanted to throw it all in, let Mother Nature heal it without doing any work. It was a little bit of both." George (4-of-5) and shooting guard Monta Ellis (3-of-4) were strong from 3-point range in the opener and Indiana was 11-of-21 overall.
ABOUT THE RAPTORS: Game 1 was filled with offensive inefficiency as Toronto shot 38 percent from the field and committed 20 turnovers that led to 25 Indiana points. "We just missed some shots and turned the ball over," All-Star point guard Kyle Lowry told reporters. "Now there's a series of adjustments we have to do in one day. It's one game. This is not last year. We're very positive, we're very confident." Lowry was just 3-of-13 shooting, All-Star shooting guard DeMar DeRozan was only 5-of-19 and center Jonas Valanciunas - who set a franchise playoff record with 19 rebounds - was just 4-of-14.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Raptors have lost home playoff openers in three consecutive seasons.
2. Rookie backup PF Myles Turner blocked five shots in Game 1 and Indiana had eight overall.
3. Toronto backup PG Cory Joseph was superb in Game 1 with 18 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field and 7-of-8 from the free-throw line.