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Back to half time
The Pacers are looking to stay in the winner’s column this afternoon as head coach Nate Bjorkgren takes on his former team, the Toronto Raptors, at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
The team will have to tighten up in the second half if they want to pull off the win. The Blue & Gold lag the Raptors 58-47 at halftime.
With the score tied 24-24 after one, Indiana struggled to score in the second. The Blue & Gold finished just 5 of 22 (22.7%) off the ground in the frame. Domantas Sabonis and Doug McDermott are the Pacers’ only double-digit scorers with 10 points apiece. OG Anunoby has 17 for Toronto on an impressive 7-of-10 shot.
A tight six-minute opener saw no team gain more than a four-point advantage before the game’s first stoppage. As they often do, the Raptors found early success beyond the arc, starting the game 4 of 4 from the depths. Back-to-back lines of former Indiana Hoosier Anunoby took a 16-13 Raptors lead at 6:50 behind the first.
The Pacers then cracked down on the defense, holding Toronto to scoreless streaks of 2:45 and 3:38 in the second half of the game. Defensive mainstay Myles Turner added a pair of blocks on the effort.
But Indiana couldn’t take advantage of Toronto’s scoreless streaks, finding its own scoring issues. With 2:55 to go and the score tied 22-22, the Blue & Gold didn’t find a bucket until Aaron Holiday equalized a Malachi Flynn layup with 28.3 seconds to go. The score was tied at 24 after one.
The first minutes of the second imitated the first. The clubs traded header control for the first three minutes before Toronto managed to pull together a few buckets.
Tied at 31, Chris Boucher had a put-out and VanVleet had a tough game and a jumper to stretch Toronto’s lead to 36-31 with 8:33 to go. The Blue & Gold climbed briefly ahead, 37-36 on a pair of free throws from Domantas Sabonis in a 6-0 push. However, Toronto reacted quickly with an 8-0 run. Indiana is 45-37 behind with 5:28 remaining.
The Pacers were able to reduce Toronto’s lead to four, twice before the Raptors clocked an 11-4 run to 2:36 that pushed their lead to double digits for the first time. Justin Holiday reduced the lead to 56-47 with a steal and slam at 1:29. But a pair of free throws from VanFleet with 3.2 seconds reduced Toronto’s lead to 11 before the break.
Tickets
A limited number of tickets for all of the Pacers’ upcoming home games from Jan. 24 to March 4 are now on sale. Tickets for a game “Health and safety instructions”
Broadcast information List of television and radio programs »
TV: FOX Sports Indiana / NBA TV – Chris Denari (play-by-play), Quinn Buckner (analyst), Jeremiah Johnson (reporter / host)
Radio: 93.5 / 107.5 The Fan – Mark Boyle (play-by-play), Pat Boylan (reporter / host)
Note: Inside Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Pacers radio broadcasts can be heard at 1080 AM instead of 1070.
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