Pacers fall 74-72 despite holding Toronto to 5-point fourth quarter

admin November 14, 2012 0

By CHRIS GOFF
ISL Correspondent

INDIANAPOLIS – In need of an 11-point comeback, the Indiana Pacers clamped down like few teams in NBA history.

The Toronto Raptors, less than 24 hours removed from a triple-overtime defeat, made one basket and scored five points in the fourth quarter.

The Pacers still couldn’t win.

DeMar DeRozan had 15 points and Jose Calderon posted a triple double as Toronto won 74-72 Tuesday in a game marred by 39 fouls, 26 turnovers and 97 missed shots. The Raptors needed to stomach a nerve-wracking ending for their second win of the season.

Down 74-72, Indiana missed five shots in the final 38 seconds that could have either tied the game or given the Pacers the lead. David West and Paul George each missed twice, with George’s 15-footer landing in the hands of DeRozan as the buzzer sounded.

You have got to be able to score more than 14 when you hold a team to five, said West, who had 11 points on 3-of-12 shooting.

Only once in the shot-clock era has a team scored fewer than five points in a fourth quarter. The Pacers set a franchise record for the fewest points allowed in any quarter. But good defense was undone by woeful offense, as Indiana shot 32 percent overall and missed 19 of 24 tries in the final period.

Tough loss, Pacers coach Frank Vogel said. Credit to Toronto, they gutted it out. We’re getting a number of open looks at the rim and they’re not going down.

Indiana (3-5) was held under 75 points for the first time since April 13. Toronto (2-6) allowed its fewest points of the season in winning in Indianapolis for the first time since Feb. 25, 2008.

Our defense carried us, coach Dwane Casey said. Our guys willed their way through the fourth quarter. They had no legs to score but stuck together. We deserved to win.

The Pacers have lost four of their last five and continue to struggle offensively. Indiana entered the day next to last in the league in field-goal percentage (41.2 percent). George shot 3 for 14 and Roy Hibbert, who signed a $58 million contract in the offseason, was 3-of-9, leaving Indy’s starting frontcourt with a 9-for-35 showing.

I don’t know what it is, West said. There’s no continuity. We rush a little bit. Not having (injured star) Danny Granger, he’s a big part of what we do. We haven’t been able to get multiple guys going at once.

Toronto began the last 12 minutes ahead 69-58 after building on a 10-point halftime lead. The Raptors missed their first five shots before Linas Kleiza converted a post-up for a 12-point advantage. Toronto then went scoreless for more than 6 minutes, as Hill scored six points in a 9-0 Pacers run to pull within 71-68. DeRozan made a free throw with 3:20 remaining and Amir Johnson hit a pair with 2:10 left.

It was just enough. Neither team scored after Hill made an off-balance layup with 1:01 remaining.

We had one field goal in the fourth and still won, said Calderon, who had 13 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists after playing 50 minutes Monday against Utah. That’s great. We were tired.

Calderon’s triple double was the first against the Pacers since Dec. 19, 2011.

Great players have great games, Hill said. He played a complete, all-around game. He scores. He passes. Now I guess he can rebound, too.

Calderon and DeRozan wore down in the second half, combining for just eight points after scoring 10 each before intermission. The starting guards played 110 minutes Monday. Casey said before the game that he would likely play them less than usual to guard against fatigue. In a close game, though, the coach didn’t have that luxury.

He was rewarded with the end of a four-game losing streak.

It didn’t appear in the cards early. The Pacers scored nine of the game’s first 11 points before Calderon rattled off eight straight for Toronto. The Raptors ended the period on a 15-4 run to lead 29-21.

We had a big letdown at the end of that quarter and it affected everybody, said Pacers guard Lance Stephenson, who started for a second-consecutive game in Vogel’s new nine-man rotation.

Rookie first-rounder Terrence Ross provided a boost in the second quarter, scoring seven of Toronto’s 17 points. Indiana trailed 46-36 at the break, its lowest-scoring first half of the season. The Pacers dropped to 1-4 when trailing at halftime.

Toronto opened a 15-point lead, its largest of the night, early in the third quarter, but Indiana looked like it would recover. A 7-0 Pacers run, drawing them within 51-43 with just under 9 minutes left, was short-lived. Calderon and Andrea Bargnani immediately made 3s to restore the double-digit advantage Toronto would maintain for all but 53 seconds the rest of the period.

In the fourth, it was all the Raptors could do to hang on. With starting point guard Kyle Lowry in New York to undergo tests on a sprained right ankle, Calderon pulled them through.

It’s his will, Casey said. He was running on fumes.

Kleiza scored 10 points, Jonas Valanciunas added nine and Bargnani finished with eight for Toronto. Johnson chipped in seven points and seven boards off the bench.

Hill scored eight of his game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter against Calderon but missed a jumper that could have tied the game with 6 seconds left. George rebounded and missed a fallaway.

The Pacers play at division rival Milwaukee Wednesday night. They have won five straight against the Bucks, who are first in the Central Division and two games ahead of Indiana.

We try to stay positive, West said. We’re capable of playing at a much higher level. It’s a long year. This is not a sprint. It’s a marathon.