The best thing about the NBA playoffs is the newness of it all. Regardless of your sins in the regular season, you have the opportunity to make people forget quickly with a strong showing in the postseason.
"It's a fresh start. Zero-zero. A great opportunity to forget about the regular season and focus on what's important," Paul George said Thursday.
Of all the important factors for the Pacers when they open their first-round series in Toronto on Saturday, nothing ranks ahead of keeping Raptors' guards Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan off the foul line. The two All-Stars practically wore out a path to the stripe in the Raptors' two regular season victories over the Pacers (excluding the last one in which they did not play), and there's a direct correlation between their attempts and the outcomes.
PLAYOFF CENTRAL: See more from the 2016 Playoffs at Pacers.com/Playoffs »
In the season-opener on Oct. 28, the two combined for 22 free throws, hitting 15, in Toronto's 106-99 victory. On Dec. 24, the Pacers allowed them just nine attempts combined, and won 106-90. Then on March 17, Lowry and DeRozan combined for 21 foul shots, hitting 18, in Toronto's 101-94 victory.
It's enough of a sample size to lead Pacers coach Frank Vogel to believe it's not a coincidence, and enough of a concern to make it one of the bullet points he put up for his players in their pre-practice meeting on Thursday.
"We've got to be disciplined with our hands and with our body position and understand they're going to throw their bodies into us and snap their heads back and swing their arms through and hope the whistle blows," Vogel said. "Sometimes it blows and sometimes it doesn't. We've got to earn those no-calls by being disciplined with our body position and by being disciplined with our hands."
Vogel has indicated he would like for the NBA to discuss the issue of player initiated contact to draw fouls in the off-season, and he had plenty to say to the referees about it the last time the teams met at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, but he isn't politicking for a rules change now.
"We know how it's going to be called," he said. "If we reach in and there's contact on the arms, it's a foul. We've got to get our hands out of there. The league does a great job of understanding how offensive players play and what's a foul and what's not a foul."
The responsibility of limiting the charity for Lowry and DeRozan will fall primarily on Monta Ellis and George Hill, although Paul George and others will take turns defending them. Toronto got to the foul line more often than the Pacers in each of the first three regular season games, even the one the Pacers won. It outscored the Pacers by 23 points on free throws in those games, an obvious factor in its victories.
DeRozan averaged 8.4 free throw attempts during the season and Lowry averaged 6.4. Both shot better than 80 percent. Paul George led the Pacers with 6.5 attempts per game, but none of his teammates averaged more than 3.2.
"They're phenomenal at going for contact," George Hill said. "We've got to show our hands and rely on team defense."
Lowry will turn over the ball if well-defended – he totaled 18 turnovers in the first three games – but that creates a conundrum. A defender generally needs to use his hands to create turnovers, but that tends to lead to fouls. The trick is to have them up in the air when Lowry and DeRozan drive to the basket and lean into their defenders, yet still stay in front of them.
"You have to have active hands, but it's mostly in the passing lanes as opposed to trying to strip the ball out of guys' hands," Vogel said.
Have a question for Mark? Want it to be on Pacers.com? Email him at askmontieth@gmail.com and you could be featured in his next mailbag.
Note: The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Indiana Pacers. All opinions expressed by Mark Montieth are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Indiana Pacers, their partners, or sponsors.