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The Indiana Pacers will aim to stay perfect since the All-Star break when they continue a four-game homestand with a second leg of a back-to-back on Monday against the Toronto Raptors in Indianapolis.
Indiana won its third straight and second since the break on Sunday, blowing out the Dallas Mavericks 133-111. The Pacers‘ scoring output matched their highest since a 133-131 win over Phoenix on Jan. 26.
Seven Pacers scored in double figures, led by Myles Turner’s season-high 33 points.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Turner told Bally Sports Indiana in his postgame interview, referring to the team’s postseason outlook. “We put (ourselves) in a good position, but we still have 24 more games left to try to make some more hay. We want to try to host in the playoffs.”
While the Pacers moved up to sixth in the Eastern Conference on Sunday and have designs on home-court advantage for at least a series, their opponent Monday is scrapping from the outside looking in.
Toronto stumbled into the All-Star break on a three-game losing skid, concluding with a 127-125 home loss Feb. 14 to Indiana. The Raptors have come out of the break with a pair of wins and sit four games out of the last play-in spot through Sunday.
After routing Brooklyn at home on Thursday, 121-93, the Raptors scored a 123-121 win at Atlanta on Friday behind 24 points from Immanuel Quickley and a 20-point, 10-assist double-double from Scottie Barnes.
Quickley also scored 24 points in the front end of the back-to-back vs. Brooklyn. He is a combined 11-of-19 from 3-point range post-All-Star break.
“My mindset to be aggressive and really just look for opportunities to score I think has helped me out a lot, and teams have started to blitz me when I have that mindset,” Quickley said in Friday’s postgame media availability, explaining how his scoring can help set the table for the rest of the Raptors‘ offense. “Then I’m able to hit (Jakob Poeltl), Scottie, the shooters.”
Quickley dished five assists on Friday, as Toronto assisted 37 of its 50 made field goals overall. Poeltl, who also had a double-double of 12 points and 13 rebounds, passed for six assists.
The Raptors‘ effective ball movement against Atlanta resulted in eight players scoring in double figures, including rookie Gradey Dick with 18 points. Dick has seen an uptick in playing time, logging at least 19 minutes in 10 of the last 13 games.
The Raptors head into Monday’s matchup third in the NBA with an average of 29.2 assists per game. Barnes’ 6.0 assists per game lead the way, with Quickley averaging 5.6 since joining Toronto.
Indiana is one of only two teams averaging more assists per game than Toronto, with an NBA-best 31.0 per game. Tyrese Haliburton paces the league at 11.7 per game. Haliburton went for 10 assists with 17 points and four steals on Sunday.
Haliburton scored 21 points and dished 12 assists when Indiana last faced Toronto, while former All-NBA Raptor Pascal Siakam scored 23 points against his old team.
Siakam has scored at least 20 points in nine of his 16 games for Indiana since making his team debut on Jan. 19, following a trade that shipped him from Toronto for Bruce Brown, Jordan Nwora and future draft picks.
—Field Level Media
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