Raptors hang for a half, but the Pacers pull away in the third to improve to 6-0.
 | Amir Johnson, PF 34 MIN | 5-8 FG | 2-2 FT | 10 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 12 PTS | -11Excellent defense on David West, gathered a handful of putbacks. Still shooting threes (and missed all of them) and still bringing the energy. Don’t let the awful plus-minus deceive you, Amir had a great game. |  |
 | Rudy Gay, SF 35 MIN | 12-26 FG | 4-4 FT | 4 REB | 0 AST | 3 STL | 3 BLK | 2 TO | 30 PTS | +3Best game from Gay by far. Took his usual smattering of ill-advised shots, only he sunk them tonight. Aggressive in attacking the basket at times and went really hard after his own rebounds. Much more engaged in tonight’s game. Really took to the challenge of guarding George. | |
 | Jonas Valanciunas, C 34 MIN | 2-6 FG | 0-0 FT | 5 REB | 0 AST | 2 STL | 2 BLK | 2 TO | 4 PTS | +3Lesson learned for Valanciunas. Hibbert is the best big man in the Eastern conference, and he looked like that against Jonas. Hibbert crushed him on defense and bullied him on offense. Casey gave him the minutes, but Valanciunas didn’t deliver. |  |
 | Kyle Lowry, PG 37 MIN | 4-10 FG | 2-2 FT | 7 REB | 8 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 12 PTS | +7Lowry was awesome. Pushed the tempo in the first quarter, dropped a bunch of dimes and hit the occasional three. His impact on the game, especially in the first half, was immense. | |
 | DeMar DeRozan, SG 36 MIN | 2-15 FG | 2-2 FT | 5 REB | 3 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 6 PTS | -2Demar’s worst game of the season. Took way too many long jumpers (some of them were open, but his shot was totally off). He should have focused on attacking the paint, but he settled too often. This is an ugly shot chart. |  |
 | Tyler Hansbrough, PF 19 MIN | 1-4 FG | 2-2 FT | 5 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 4 PTS | -5Ehh, energy and rebounding. What else is new? |  |
 | Landry Fields, SF 14 MIN | 2-2 FG | 1-3 FT | 2 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 5 PTS | -7Rendered ineffective in tonight’s game. Stephenson did a great job on him. | |
 | Aaron Gray, C 6 MIN | 0-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 0 PTS | -4Somehow he turned it over 3 times in 4 minutes. Casey went to Air Grayness for his size, but he only had his incompetence to offer. |  |
 | D.J. Augustin, PG 6 MIN | 0-2 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 0 PTS | -9So awful that Julyan Stone jumped over him in the depth chart. | |
 | Julyan Stone, SG 4 MIN | 1-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 3 PTS | -8He came home, like a stone, and he fell heavy, against Indiana’s defense. He looked awful out there. Sunk a three, but was terrible with the whole running an offense thing. | |
 | Terrence Ross, SG 11 MIN | 2-4 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 0 TO | 5 PTS | -8He played 11 minutes? Wow. |  |
 | Dwane CaseyAverage game from Casey. He didn’t have the right personnel to combat the championship-ready Pacers. Looked like he made it a game-plan to run out in transition early, but his squad lost that urgency after the first half. Tried different bench units/players, which was nice, but you should be able to deduce beforehand that a lineup of Augustin-Ross-Fields-Hansbrough-Gray would not stand up to legitimate NBA competition. |  |
Three Things We Saw
- Great things happened in the first quarter. The Raptors pushed the tempo early which led to some transition buckets (Raps were last in league in pace before tonight). With the amount of athleticism on this roster, the Raptors should often and always.
- Jonas isn’t ready yet. Hibbert clobbered him on multiple occasions. It was a bit embarrassing, really. Hopefully he learned how to play that “verticality” game. If Jonas could adapt to Hibbert’s skillset, I would be overjoyed. Also, we traded Hibbert away for Jermaine O’Neal. Thanks, BC!
- Paul George is freaking awesome. He dropped 17 points in the third, including a buzzer beating three from 30 feet out. He’s also a tremendously dogged defender and his wingspan is the stuff of Jay Bilas’ dreams.
