Post-Game Grades: Pacers lose a close one to East-best Raptors despite vintage night from Big Al Jefferson

The Indiana Pacers played strongly and led most of the game, but weren’t able to finish against a hot Raptors squad.

Look, the Toronto Raptors are first in the East. They came into Indy Thursday night on a nine-game win streak, and had won 16 of their last 17 games. The Indiana Pacers may seem close behind at third in the East and 6-1 in their previous seven, but in 2018, the difference between first and third in the East is cavernous.

The first quarter was one of runs for Indiana — there was an early eight-point run (8 points, 99 seconds) eventually followed by another 9-0 run to give the Pacers a slight 27-25 lead against a Raptors team that takes and makes a hell of a lot of threes. Victor Oladipo chipped in for ten of Indy’s 27.

The second quarter was fun. Al Jefferson’s brief first-quarter success was compounded on to the tune of 15 points on 7-for-8 shooting, six rebounds, and a block in 11 minutes — a pretty big amount of minutes for Big Al due to an injury to Domas Sabonis. And then Myles Turner rolled an ankle. This is why it’s nice for the Pacers to have a low-post offensive monster like Big Al ready and waiting.

Along with the Big Classic’s contributions — mostly at Jakob Poeltl’s expense — Darren Collison shot sweetly, and Lance Lance’d, and those three alone combined for 31 points off the bench in the first half. That left the Pacers up 57-49 going into the third.

The Raptors have been successful this year partly by limiting themselves to just 13.1 turnovers per game — good for fourth in the league — but Toronto eclipsed that mark just minutes into the second half with four quick TOs. But things evened out for the Raps, as the Pacers gave up offensive rebound after offensive rebound — by the end of the third, Jonas Valanciunas had 15 bounds, eight of them ORBs. The Pacer lead was cut to 79-77 at the close of the third.

The Pacers began the fourth quarter having turned the ball over just five times total, but the Raps continued to play Indiana close, and despite even more Big Al ridiculousness, Indiana found themselves down four points midway through the final period. Things got more iffy when Myles, playing fitfully after that first-half ankle turn, further re-aggravated the injury. Cross your fingers on that one, Pacer Nation.

The Raps built their lead, tiny brick by tiny brick, and while the Pacers and the Bankers Life fans never quit, the Toronto Raptors are Number One (that’s Canadian for ‘Number One’) in the East for several good and important reasons.

The Pacers chances against the Raps were never going to be good, especially considering the lack of Domas and Myles’ unlucky ankle sprain, but the Pacers showed an admirable amount of fight in this one. That’s something to feel good about. The Raptors are a possible first-round playoff match-up, and I think the Pacers proved over the last week they won’t go quietly against anyone in the East.

The Good: The Pacers only coughed the ball up eight times, quite impressive against one of the league’s top defensive squads. Big Al finished the night with a vintage Big Classic line: 20 points on 9-for-15 shooting and 12 boards in 25 minutes off the bench. His fellow benchmate, Darren Collison, had a gorgeous 8-for-11 night (3-for-4 from deep) to 22 points and four assists. DC might have played his last game off the pine.

And Lance did this. This was Good:

The Bad: Toronto’s 19 offensive boards. Vic only getting to the free-throw line once, shooting meh, and turning the ball over thrice. Bojan Bogdanovic — a player who refuses to let us feel any type of way about him for any sustained period of time — went 1-for-10 tonight. Myles’ damn ankle was also bad, with the potential to be worse.

MVP: Al Jefferson out here playing for another $10 mill per season contract.

LVP:  This sorta thing:

X-Factor: 

Next: Domantas Sabonis’ sprained ankle ramifications

The Pacers head to DC for a match-up with the Wizards on Saturday with a 7 p.m. ET tip-off. Possibly a first-round playoff preview and HEAVY on the playoff-seeding ramifications.