After facing Western Conference contenders in the first three dates of their four-game homestand, the Indiana Pacers close out the set on Wednesday with their struggling Eastern Conference counterparts, the Toronto Raptors.
Indiana began its challenging home stretch with wins over Memphis (127-113) on Thursday and a 129-111 rout of the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday. However, three-time NBA Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic’s 18-point, 19-assist effort contributed to red-hot Denver snapping a three-game Pacers winning streak on Monday in a 125-116 decision.
Indiana aims to bounce back against a Toronto team languishing in 13th place in the East. Despite the Raptors’ struggles, including dropping Tuesday’s leg of a back-to-back vs. Boston, 111-101, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle pointed to Indiana’s difficulties with Toronto in early-season matchups.
“Toronto’s a big, physical team that we’ve had a lot of problems with,” Carlisle said.
The Raptors won the two previous meetings: the first in November (130-119) and the second in December (122-111). Both were played in Toronto. RJ Barrett scored 39 and 29 points in the two previous encounters, while Scottie Barnes went for 35 points in the December meeting.
Barrett comes into Indiana with a five-game streak of scoring at least 20 points. He is averaging 21.9 points per game after Tuesday’s 22-point effort, but at 1-for-5 against Boston, had his worst 3-point shooting performance in the month of February.
“Sometimes you make shots, sometimes you don’t,” Barrett told reporters following the game. “They just didn’t drop today. I think even with that, we still played hard, and we still played well.”
Toronto has dropped seven of its last nine games with Tuesday’s loss, which followed a 127-109 rout of Phoenix on Sunday. The Raptors took Miami to overtime in a 120-111 loss on Friday.
Toronto currently is playing without Jakob Poeltl, a linchpin to the size that Carlisle said gave Indiana trouble. Poeltl’s status for Wednesday is uncertain due to a hip injury that has kept him out since last playing on Feb. 4. Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic told reporters before Tuesday’s game that the center is “very close” to a return.
Rookie Jonathan Mogbo made his fifth start since Feb. 7 in Poeltl’s void at center during Tuesday’s loss. Mogbo finished with four points, four rebounds, two steals and two assists.
Former Raptor Pascal Siakam leads Indiana’s efforts on the interior against Toronto. Siakam is averaging team-highs of 20.4 points and 7.3 rebounds per game after his 19-point, nine-rebound showing vs. Denver.
On Sunday versus the Clippers, Siakam recorded his first double-double since Feb. 7, going for 12 points and 12 rebounds. His point of emphasis following Monday, however, was for Indiana to recover from an uncharacteristic 18-turnover night.
“That’s not us. We’ve got to fix it,” Siakam said.
The Pacers average the fifth-fewest turnovers per game in the league at 13.4. That number is in part a testament to the play of Tyrese Haliburton.
Although Haliburton’s assists per game are down from a season ago, when he averaged an NBA-leading 10.9 per game, now at 8.7, he is committing 1.8 turnovers a contest, down from 2.3 in 2023-24.
–Field Level Media
