Raptors edge Pacers in a game that was all about offence
Pascal Siakam, Scottie Barnes and Dennis Schröder lead Toronto in a game where defence was little more than an afterthought.
Shots went up from hither and yon, defence was little more than an afterthought.
Fans of grit-and-grind and tough NBA basketball wouldn’t have appreciated what transpired in Indianapolis on Wednesday, but for a nondescript late November regular-season game a flurry of buckets and points was a delight to watch.
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The Toronto Raptors might want to take a page out of the Indiana Pacers playbook. As you may recall, the Pacers were once among the NBA’s middling franchises not too long ago. They had a first-year head coach experiment gone wrong and with too much roster overlap, they decided to make a move. Out went All-
Star center Domantas Sabonis and in came Tyrese Haliburton. It wasn’t pretty immediately. Indiana first had to embark on two losing seasons but suddenly this Pacers team has the makings of something special. They’re an offensive juggernaut with Haliburton leading the way and even in a 132-131 loss to Toronto on Wednesday night, it’s clear they’re on the right path forward. For Toronto, things are a little murkier. Yes, Pascal Siakam is still a star. He showed as much with a 36-point showing against the Pacers. But it’s also clear the Raptors are, well, middling. They’re a team that can get blown out by the Orlando Magic one
night and then look like some offensive superpower the following night. For Toronto, the future is Barnes. He was the one with the ball in his hands and the game on the line Wednesday. When the Raptors bluffed a handoff to Siakam late in the fourth, Barnes called his own number, beating Myles Turner to the hoop for the and-1 finish that gave the Raptors the lead. The Pacers didn’t make it easy. Haliburton put Indiana up with less than a minute to go with a smooth floater the moment OG Anunoby took one misstep in the wrong direction. He then pulled the Pacers within one with a pair of free throws, but Indiana couldn’t nail the last-second would-be game-winner.
