Spectacular Tyrese Haliburton performance too much for Raptors to overcome, even with Jakob Poeltl back in lineup.
Minus Scottie Barnes, the Toronto Raptors had no answers for Tyrese Haliburton on Wednesday night in Indianapolis.
The two-time all-star point guard hit seven three-pointers — one more than Toronto managed as a team — and rarely missed a shot in a dominant outing, helping the Pacers to a 111-91 win. Haliburton finished with 33 points and 11 assists, Myles Turner had 18 points and 10 rebounds, Pascal Siakam 15 and eight. Toronto was led by Immanuel Quickley, who scored 18 points, most in the second half and 16 each from RJ Barrett and Jonathan Mogbo.
Toronto got starting centre Jakob Poeltl back after he’d missed eight games, six of them Raptors losses. But the team was without top player Barnes due to a left hip contusion. Barnes also hurt his right ankle in a recent game. This is the 14th game Barnes has missed this season after a series of injuries cost him 22 last season. He missed a total of 13 games over his first two seasons in the NBA. Toronto is in a busy stretch, with games in seven of 12 days, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see key players load managed through the stretch.
Ochai Agbaji started in place of Barnes, while Orlando Robinson returned to the bench with Poeltl in his regular spot in the middle.
Indiana led by two after a quarter, even though the Raptors missed 7-of-8 three-point attempts. Haliburton, who had been questionable to play, scored 12 in the first, hitting four three-pointers on his own.
The Pacers dominated the second quarter, holding Toronto to only 17 points, pushing the lead to 10 at halftime. The Raptors shot a dismal 30% in the half.
The visitors finally started hitting shots in the third, but didn’t make a lot of headway. And then the locks went back onto the rim and Toronto went nearly four minutes without scoring a field goal, Indiana went on a 12-0 run to end the third quarter (to lead by 17), and then added a couple more before five quick points from Quickley forced Indiana to call timeout. The Raptors kept coming though, closing to single digits several times in the fourth. Reserve big men Mogbo and Robinson did excellent work on both ends of the floor in the quarter.
But Haliburton put the finishing touches on the victory with a three-pointer, assist and dunk to erase any final Raptors hopes.
Other than a couple of early three-point Toronto advantages, the Pacers led the game the entire way.
Indiana has had a strange season, with Haliburton looking awful at times, an all-star at others. The team was under .500 as recently as Jan. 2, but has gone 16-6 since with Haliburton right around 50% on three-point shots over his last four games following the all-star break. He’d shot 44% form three in January, up from 45% in December.
Former Raptors star Siakam improved to 3-3 against Toronto since being traded to Indiana. He had lost the previous two meetings this season but was quiet in this one.
The trip continues in Chicago on Friday with a date with the Bulls, who snapped a six-game winless skid with a victory over the disastrous Philadelphia 76ers Monday. Then its two straight games at Orlando before a four-game homestand.
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