The Raptors were competitive in the first half but a 41-27 Indiana third quarter pushed the Pacers up double digits for good.
Tyrese Haliburton had a game-high 30 points. Pascal Siakam added 16 and nine rebounds in his second return to Toronto since being traded in January. RJ Barrett and Kelly Olynyk combined for 45 points but the main talking point was a career night for Javon Freeman-Liberty.
JFL settling in
Freeman-Liberty averaged over 24 points per game with the Raptors 905 this season. He has taken a couple of crash courses on how to run the team at point guard, starting for the fifth time. Immanuel Quickley rested (first night of a back to back), opening the door for JFL to set the tone early.
Freeman-Liberty’s career-high coming into this game was 16 points. He had 14 in the first quarter alone, scoring on all three levels. Matt Devlin pointed out probably his savviest of moves in the second quarter, keeping Haliburton on his hip to set up a jumper near the elbow. He finished with his first 20 point game, also adding eight rebounds (three on the offensive glass).
Darko Rajakovic spoke postgame about this being Freeman-Liberty’s best game and adjusting at point guard.
Javon brought up an intangible required to succeed running a team thats relatively underrated.
Sidenotes
- Siakam had a long embrace with Scottie Barnes post game, with lots of former teammates including Darko waiting to greet him.
Pascal had some chippy moments in the game, especially with Kelly Olynyk but nothing serious overall.
- Jordan Nwora appeared to hurt his knee under two minutes left while driving, limping to the locker room afterwards. Darko said he felt better postgame but will have to see how he wakes up in the morning
- Ochai Agbaji had a few impressive defensive sequences, finishing with three blocks. Working on his offensive bag will be huge in the offseason so he can stay on the court as a viable option. Agbaji shot 0-6 in 29 minutes.
- Bruce Brown had a solid game off the bench against his old team (16 points, five assists, 7-12 FG)
Up Next: Final back-to-back of the season. The Raptors are in Brooklyn tonight.
