featured-image

Raptors Looking To Bounce Back In Pivotal Game 5 Against Pacers

Holly MacKenzie - Raptors.com

Through four games, two wins and two losses, we've seen the good and the not-so-good from the Toronto Raptors this postseason. With Game 5 tipping off at Air Canada Centre on Tuesday at 6 P.M. the Raptors hope to show more of the good, and to show it consistently. With the best-of-seven series a best-of-three now that things are tied at two games apiece, there will be adjustments from both teams moving forward, but things won’t suddenly be drastically different.

“Right now, Game 5, you can make another adjustment but after that it’s kind of you just have to hoop. You gotta play basketball,” Kyle Lowry said. “You’ve got to trust what you have done all year long and trust in the coverages and the things you have put in all year and just play basketball.”

The Raptors came into this series having won a franchise-best 56 games. Lowry and DeMar DeRozan were both named All-Stars and the duo averaged 44.7 points per contest during the regular season. Indiana has done their best to combat that and the Raptors guards combined average has fallen to 28.8 points. Still head coach Dwane Casey pointed to all they’ve done during the season to get the team the second seed in the Eastern Conference.

They’re our guys,” Casey said. “They haven't shot the ball great, but it's still basketball. We're going to go with them, they're our star players, they're All-Stars for a reason and we're trying, as a coach and as a staff, to try to put them in the best position to be successful.”

After Lowry had a quiet Game 1 he bounced back in Game 2, then had his highest scoring game of the series in Toronto’s Game 3 win, scoring 21 points. With each game in the series being so different than the last, it’s impossible for him to predict whether he'll be more of a scorer or facilitator before opening tip. Still, getting teammates involved is a top priority for the point guard no matter what else is happening.

“It’s just going into the game and knowing what they did the last game and trying to adjust to it,” Lowry said. “Once they adjust to you, you have to adjust on the fly. For me I always want to get my teammates involved first. That’s first and foremost. Sometimes I’m stuck in a position where I have to shoot late in the shot clock but to start a game I always want to get those guys going - DeMar [DeRozan] and Jonas [Valanciunas] and even Luis [Scola] and DC [DeMarre Carroll]. I want to get them going early, but sometimes it doesn’t work out like that so I have to be a little more aggressive and more assertive. To start a game off you really have to feel it out and collect data.”

After falling behind in the first quarter in Saturday’s Game 4 loss in Indiana, Casey stressed the importance of his team starting off with the right intensity.

We've got to be the hungry team,” he said. “If we're not the hungry team, if our backs are not against the wall and we don't feel like were being attacked, we lose that edge a little bit. We've been preaching it. I don't know if it's human nature [or what], but we didn't come out with that same edge [on Saturday].

Although everyone in Toronto’s locker room would have preferred to come home up 3-1, there is no panic with the series tied 2-2. Players are continuing to focus on the game in front of them, and keeping things positive inside the locker room. When Lowry was asked if he is able to turn things off when he leaves the arena, his answer spoke volumes about the reason he’s prepared tirelessly for this postseason.

“I eat sleep and dream basketball,” Lowry said. “This is my life. I love it. There is no off switch for me. I am always conscious of it. Watching basketball, watching other teams, or going over YouTube clips. Just watching basketball. That’s what I love and what has made me a good living and made me the man I am today, to be able to speak to you guys because of basketball. There is no turning off basketball. I just enjoy it. The love for the game I have is crazy.”

Lowry’s hope for Tuesday night is for the ACC to be filled with people expressing their love for the game early and often when things tip off at 6 P.M. ET.

“We need our fans there,” he said. “We need them there from the jump. If we go on a quick run we are going to need them to go nuts and just stay into the game no matter what. We need our fans to be there supporting us no matter what. Cheering us on and being loud and being disruptive for the Pacers.”