Raptors vs. Pacers: Game 6 Score and Twitter Reaction from 2016 NBA Playoffs
The Toronto Raptors will continue waiting for their first seven-game postseason series win after falling 101-83 on the road to the Indiana Pacers on Friday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Game 6 of the first round of the 2016 NBA playoffs.
Indiana turned the game—and potentially the series—on its head after outscoring Toronto 61-39 in the second half:
Paul George spearheaded the turnaround. He shot only 5-of-14 from the field but finished with 21 points, 11 rebounds and six assists. Nylon Calculus' Seth Partnow also praised George's work on the defensive end against DeMar DeRozan:
"Paul George defending DeRozan: pic.twitter.com/tKsi0W6V2I
— Seth Partnow (@SethPartnow) April 30, 2016"
DeRozan and Kyle Lowry combined to make seven of their 27 field-goal attempts. While Lowry posted an empty double-double (10 points, 10 assists), TSN's John Horn identified the duo's poor shooting as a major problem for Toronto:
What will make their dreadful second half more frustrating is that the Raptors couldn't have envisaged a better start to the game. They jumped out to a 20-8 lead with 3:34 left in the first quarter. Back-to-back dunks by DeRozan and DeMarre Carroll set the pace early:
But in what became a trend in the first half, Toronto ran into trouble when head coach Dwane Casey brought out members of the second unit. The team also struggled when the game slowed down and it had to run a half-court offense. Indiana was solid defensively when it had the time to get set.
Solomon Hill hit a three-pointer at the 3:20 mark to spark a 12-2 run for the Pacers to close out the first quarter.
That momentum didn't carry over to the second frame, as the Raptors quickly took an eight-point lead and never trailed at any point in the first half. The Pacers knocked on the door, tying the game at 30-30 with 6:46 in the half and then cutting the deficit to two points, 42-40, with 1:05 remaining.
But Toronto took a 44-40 lead into halftime. The Raptors' advantage should've been bigger, but they shot 37.2 percent from the field as a team. They out-rebounded Indiana 28-21, limited George to one made field goal and held the Pacers to 32.6 percent shooting, including 25.0 percent from three-point range.
As good as Toronto was defensively, the Indianapolis Star's Gregg Doyel didn't think the Pacers were helping themselves:
NBA.com's John Schuhmann shared Indiana's shot chart:
The Pacers found their shooting strokes in the third quarter. They scored 31 points over the 12 minutes and connected on 10 of their 15 attempts from the field. SB Nation NBA was caught off guard by Indiana's offensive explosion, since the team was getting so little from George at that point:
The Ringer's Jason Concepcion summed up the quarter for Raptors fans:
It would be unfair to blame just Lowry and DeRozan, but they collectively went cold at the worst time, which has happened before at this stage of the year. Their performances were eerily reminiscent of last year, when Lowry was particularly poor in the first round against the Washington Wizards.
MMA Fighting's Ariel Helwani thought the Raptors squad as a whole looked shell-shocked as the team was flooded with memories of past playoff failures:
Between the 1:49 mark of the third quarter and the opening 4:47 of the fourth quarter, the Pacers went on an 18-0 run. Toronto's official Twitter account was not enthused:
With each made basket, the home crowd grew more frenzied, which buoyed the Pacers players as they put the game out of reach. Once Indiana's lead grew to 19 points, the result was all but a foregone conclusion.
It was a stunning reversal of fortunes—equal parts strong play by the Pacers and a collapse by Toronto.
On one hand, the Raptors should seemingly be in the stronger position with the series shifting back to Toronto for Game 7. Chris Walder of theScore noted that playing a series-decider at home hasn't helped the team before:
TSN's Josh Lewenberg was feeling similarly uneasy:
Toronto will have a day off to recover from the defeat, but it might not matter at this point. The Raptors barely escaped Game 5 of the series, outscoring the Pacers 25-6 in the fourth quarter to grind out a 102-99 victory.
Playing in front of a home crowd can provide a major boost when things are going well, but it also adds to the weight of expectations—and added pressure is what the Raptors don't need right now.
Postgame Reaction
"Our compete level was low for whatever reason," said Casey after the game, per CBSSports.com's James Herbert. "I thought we let our lack of offensive execution or shot-making carry over to the defensive end. This game was about will, who was going to impose their will on the other team, and they got us in the third quarter."
"We couldn't score, and that gave them an opportunity to get out in transition," said DeRozan, per Scott Stinson of the National Post.
Toronto's leading scorer won't let his disappointment from Friday's loss carry over into the next few days.
"You can't make it sound like a funeral," DeRozan said of Sunday's Game 7, per Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun. "It's a chance for us to play."
Lowry is taking the same approach, per NBA TV:
Pacers head coach Frank Vogel, on the other hand, has every reason to hope for more of the same.
"I believe we can play with this team," he said, per the Pacers' official Twitter account. "We are hitting our stride at the right time and playing our best basketball."
"We were looking for a game like that the whole series," said Pacers center Ian Mahinmi, per Wheat Hotchkiss of the team's official site. "We were looking for the starting five to get going at the same time and then the bench to come in and get going, too. I'm glad it came at the biggest time of the year."
