by Jordan Morey
While the Indiana Pacers offense continued to hum on the second leg of a back-to-back, the Blue & Gold didn’t come out on the winning end of a Thanksgiving eve nail-biter.
In a game that featured 26 lead changes, the Blue & Gold couldn’t outlast the Toronto Raptors (7-8) in a 132-131 loss at Gainbridge Fieldhouse Wednesday night.
The Pacers (8-6) led 129-128 with 31 seconds left in the game after All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton hit a midrange jumper, but Toronto’s Scottie Barnes converted an and-one and then split free throws on his team’s next possession to give the visitors a three-point lead with 17 ticks on the clock.
Haliburton was then fouled and hit two free throws before the Raptors missed their next two foul shots, but Buddy Hield’s deep 3-pointer at the buzzer hit the backboard and bounced off the rim as the Pacers fell short.
“It was a wild game … a disappointing result,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said. “At times, when we needed to be solid with the ball, and solid defensively, we had struggles at untimely moments. It cost us. All that said, with everything that happened in the last minute, we still had a shot at the end to win.”
Hield dropped 19 points in the first half en route to a personal season-best 31, while Haliburton finished with 33 points and 16 assists. Five Pacers finished in double-digit scoring, and the team shot 54.9 percent from the field.
Forward Pascal Siakam had a big night for the Raptors, finishing with a game-high 36 points while pulling down 10 rebounds. Toronto point guard Dennis Schroder had 26 points, five assists and six rebounds, and Barnes tallied 20 points and 12 boards. Toronto made 53.3 percent of its shots on the night.
Despite shooting 62.8 percent from the field in the first half, the Pacers trailed 68-65 at intermission. Schroder and Siakam combined for 33 of Toronto’s 68 first-half points.
Indiana came out on fire in the first two minutes, making four of its first five shots to lead 10-2 and force a timeout by the Raptors. From 8:42 to 6:39, the Pacers strung together an 11-2 run on five points by Bruce Brown, a 3-pointer from Hield, and dunk and free throw from Myles Turner to extend the lead to 23-10.
Toronto answered with a 9-1 run of its own, but in the final minute of the frame Hield hit his third 3-pointer of the period and Haliburton made a fadeaway jumper to give the Pacers a 35-27 advantage. Hield made all four of his field goal attempts for 11 points in the opening quarter.
Toronto’s Malachi Flynn came off the bench and scored seven points in the first 90 seconds of the second quarter to narrow the score to 37-35, and the Raptors then stayed hot midway through the period, going on a 9-2 run to lead 44-42 with 7:57 left in the half.
In the final 35 seconds of the first half, the Pacers hit two 3-pointers – one by Hield and a buzzer-beater by Turner – to make it a one-possession game at 68-65.
Siakam dropped 13 points in the third quarter, but the Pacers stayed ahead by a point by putting up 36 points in the period. Threes from Hield and Haliburton put the Pacers back ahead to start the second half, but neither team would go up by more than five points as the teams traded baskets at a lightning pace. The teams tied the score four times from 4:26 to 2:50 in the third quarter, but a layup from Haliburton with 15 ticks left gave the Pacers a 101-100 lead heading into the fourth.
The teams tied four times in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter. The Pacers then used the 12-4 run, capped by an and-one from Brown and a 3-pointer by Haliburton, to lead 123-116 with four minutes remaining. Toronto then responded with a 12-4 run of its own, with OG Anunoby hitting a 3-pointer and making two free throws to get his team back in it at 126-125. Down the final stretch, the Raptors just made enough plays to earn the win. The Pacers were outrebounded 46-31 and outscored 18-8 in second-chance points.
“If you look backwards, it gets ugly. Over the course of 82, there are probably 10-12 you want back,” Haliburton said. “…These are all learning experiences for all of us. I will be better at closing games moving forward this year.”
Indiana will next host the Detroit Pistons on Friday to conclude In-Season Tournament East Group A play. Indiana has already clinched its bid to the Knockout Rounds but are still playing for seeding.
Inside the Numbers
Tyrese Haliburton has recorded 11 double doubles this season in 13 games played.
The Pacers made 18 3-pointers and the Raptors drained 11.
From the free throw line, Toronto shot 25-for-30 and Indiana made 13 of 16.
Both teams scored 64 points in the paint.
The Pacers had 14 turnovers to the Raptors’ 17 giveaways.
You Can Quote Me On That
“We had some shot selection that wasn’t probably appropriate a couple times. If they go in, everyone claps and say great shot. … Time and score is important. These are things that we’ve got to learn from. It’s one thing to be a running team, but the last two to three minutes of an NBA game are game-management time as well. We’ve got to recognize those situations better.” — Carlisle on the end of the game
“When you build a 10-, 12-, 13-point lead early, we’ve just got to understand that at that point you’ve got to bear down and work to keep or extend that lead. It’s not a time to become undisciplined and try to do heroic things and gamble. We made some mistakes in the first half that really cost us that got them right back in the game. These are learning things” — Carlisle on maintaining big leads
“Lineup-wise, nothing is written in stone. We’ve got to do the right things for the team and that’s what we’ll look at on a game-to-game basis.” — Carlisle on the lineups
“Buddy doesn’t change. His approach is always the same. He’s undaunted by games where the ball didn’t go into the basket. He really works hard at who he is and what he’s doing. I thought, tonight, he fought pretty hard in some difficult defense matchups.” – Carlisle on Buddy Hield
“He’s big and skilled. He gets to his spots pretty well. In situations where we trapped him, he got it out and did a good job of finding the right guy at the right time.” – Carlisle on Pascal Siakam’s performance
“I felt like it was bad shot selection and not finishing possessions defensively. I should’ve done a better job of closing the game.” –Tyrese Haliburton on the end of the game
“(Siakam was) tough for us to guard. Big wings have been a struggle for us all year. Eleven free throws, he got to the free throw line a lot. It ultimately came down to that we got outrebounded by 15 and didn’t get enough stops when we needed to.” – Haliburton on Siakam and the loss
“I’ll take that shot 10 times out of 10 and I think everyone else would as well. Wide open, at the top of the key, he works on that every day. That’s a great look for us.” – Haliburton on Hield’s final shot
“Just some quick shots on our part and obviously they got downhill. I messed up a couple coverages. I take full responsibility for that. Scottie Barnes got downhill, made a good play, an and-one. It was just a domino effect from there.” – Myles Turner on the difference down the stretch
“I think we switched a lot today and they took full advantage of our switching. Sometimes when you switch communication isn’t as sharp as it should be. You get some slips to the basket, some open threes. We just weren’t sharp enough.” – Turner on defensive issues
“That was on me. I take full responsibility for that. That shouldn’t have (happened). We talked about it in the huddle. I even knew it was coming. It was just a lapse. It was a bad lapse at that.” – Turner on Barnes’ and-one
“We didn’t get timely shots when we needed. We didn’t execute when we needed to execute on defense.” – Hield on the difference down the stretch
“Guys know how to get to their spots. Scottie does a good job. Siakam does a great job, he’s been in the league for the past five or six years just doing what he does. Dennis is being Dennis.” – Hield on the Raptors’ execution on offense
“Just freeing myself. Hats off to Rick making an adjustment. I feel like that helped me a little bit, helped me get more ready…I think Rick wanted a spark. We’d been getting off to rough starts. We’ve been getting off to better starts the past two games. We’ve just got to learn to finish these games now.” -Hield on busting out of his slump since moving into the starting lineup
“I liked the look. I think it’s a great look. I think that no matter how far out you are, you’ve got to catch and shoot…It’s one of those things that it’s how the game works. You make it all night, here comes that shot and you miss it and didn’t get rewarded. Somebody can talk about and say ‘Oh, you should take a dribble or not.’ I’m going to take that shot if I get it again 100 times. I don’t give a…It’s confidence, man. It’s confidence I have and my teammates and Ty trusting me.” – Hield on his shot at the buzzer
Stat of the Night
Indiana’s bench – which leads the league in scoring at 51.1 points per game – was outscored 31-20 by Toronto’s reserves.
Noteworthy
- Rick Carlisle is one win short of reaching 250 victories as head coach of the Pacers, which is one short of matching the franchise’s NBA record held by Frank Vogel.
- Buddy Hield started for a second straight game after coming off the bench for the first 12 games. Obi Toppin was inserted back into the first five after coming off the bench on Tuesday.
- Pacers second-year guard Andrew Nembahrd missed a third straight game due to a sore lower back and Aaaron Nesmith sat out with a sprained wrist.
Up Next
The Pacers welcome Cade Cunningham and the Detroit Pistons to Gainbridge Fieldhouse for an In-Season Tournament game on Friday, Nov. 24
Originally posted on pacers.com