Frank Vogel Suggests Raptors Players Exaggerate Body Language to Get Calls
The Toronto Raptors and Indiana Pacers will open postseason play early Saturday afternoon, and the head coach of the Eastern Conference's No. 7 seed knows his players need to ignore Selena Gomez and keep their hands to themselves.
Speaking to reporters, Pacers head coach Frank Vogel explained that his team needs to watch how it defends since the Raptors have a tendency to draw fouls by initiating contact with defenders, according to NBA.com's Mark Montieth:
"We've got to be disciplined with our hands and with our body position and understand they're going to throw their bodies into us and snap their heads back and swing their arms through and hope the whistle blows. Sometimes it blows and sometimes it doesn't. We've got to earn those no-calls by being disciplined with our body position and by being disciplined with our hands.
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However, Vogel did praise NBA referees for the way they've approached blowing the whistle this season.
"We know how it's going to be called," Vogel said, per Montieth. "If we reach in and there's contact on the arms, it's a foul. We've got to get our hands out of there. The league does a great job of understanding how offensive players play and what's a foul and what's not a foul."
In terms of drawing contact, the Raptors ranked among the league's best all season long. According to TeamRankings, only the Houston Rockets (22.5) and Los Angeles Clippers (22.5) drew more fouls than the Raptors, who clocked in with 22.0 per game.
The Pacers, meanwhile, ranked No. 13, drawing 20.4 fouls per game.
"They're phenomenal at going for contact," Pacers point guard George Hill added, per Montieth. "We've got to show our hands and rely on team defense."
| Indiana Pacers | 21.4 (27) | 45.3 (20) | 5.3 (24) |
| Toronto Raptors | 36.3 (2) | 46.2 (12) | 7.7 (1) |
Based on the way Indiana defended this season, that shouldn't be much of a problem.
The Pacers ranked third in defensive rating, behind only the San Antonio Spurs and Atlanta Hawks, having allowed a stingy 100.2 points per 100 possessions. The Raptors, though, boasted the league's fifth-best offense as they steamrolled opponents by dropping 107.0 points per 100 possessions.
Toronto's 3-1 record against the Pacers and superior consistency over the course of a 56-win regular season suggests the Atlantic Division champions will be able to seize control of the series and break the franchise's first-round playoff curse, but the Raptors shouldn't overlook the Pacers' ability to muddy the game up.
While Toronto swingman DeMar DeRozan looks to make trips to the line at his regular-season rate (8.4 free-throw attempts per game; No. 3 overall among all players), the Pacers will try to embrace a disciplined approach to frustrate the Raptors and ultimately wipe away the significant gulf in talent between the two sides.
Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com unless noted otherwise.
