Raptors top Pacers to take series lead

In Game 5 of the Toronto Raptors' first-round series against the Indiana Pacers, George was poised to crush the hopes of the fans at the Air Canada Centre and cast into doubt what the essence of the Raptors were about.

The Raptors got punched in the face, and then got beaten with a sack of hammers, and still they roared back and defied their history with a 25-9 fourth quarter on the way to a 102-99 win in Game 5 of their playoff series against the Indiana Pacers.

Powell wasn't exclusively responsible for shutting off Paul George's water, but he was the primary defender on the man who had 37 points through three quarters and was held to all of two in the fourth. In their last meeting IN tied up the series 2-2 with a 83-100 home win on Saturday. Jonas Valanciunas chipped in with 11 points. "That's exactly where we lost it. They got the crowd back into the game, they got guys back in and were able to keep the lead and we can't have that". They scored all of two points in ten minutes or so and let the Raptors get whatever they wanted, which was in stark contrast to a disjointed first three quarters. Wholly ineffective in 14 minutes starting in the four spot, he missed all five shots he took, including four from behind the arc.

"I swear to you, I sat on the bench and said to myself from the beginning of the game, 'I don't know how, I know we're going to come up with this win, '" Biyombo said. A bucket by Myles Turner with just over a minute to play made it a four-point game, then Solomon Hill nailed a three to cut it to one.

Pacers coach Frank Vogel elected to start the fourth quarter with Paul George on the bench, which coincided with the Raptors comeback. Joseph finished with eight points, three rebounds, two steals, one assist and one block, and made a big 3-pointer with 3:26 remaining to give Toronto a six-point edge. "I thought he played his game, within the rhythm of the offence".

With the win, the Raptors take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series. It's tempting to chalk the huge early deficit up to hot shooting from the Pacers - what are you going to do when a team is hitting nearly three quarters of their threes? - but that overlooks the fact that many of those attempts came from a shooter who was wide open. George, for his part, said he was exhausted, but not so exhausted he couldn't play. The Pacers separated themselves by knocking down five straight threes and were in cruise control after the first quarter.

Toronto won Games 2 and 3, while Indy took Games 1 and 4. Prior to the run, the Pacers had scored 22 transition points, including a 12-0 advantage over the Raptors in the first quarter.

Again, it wouldn't change the way they've already played, but a solid performance in a pivotal Game 5 could go a long way towards changing how the rest of the Raptors postseason goes.

"We were struggling to make shots", coach Brad Stevens said.

The first-round series between Toronto and IN is now tied at 2-2. The good thing about us, we have great defenders and we have pretty good team defense.