Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
Aurora's Andrew Nembhard Buries Raptors Who Fall In Heartbreaker to Pacers
So much for the Toronto Raptors suddenly being a team that takes care of business.
It was bound to come to an end eventually. All the consistency this team had shown lately, handling their business against the league’s bottom dwellers and hanging with some of the league’s best, well, it disappeared Wednesday. Toronto’s seven-game home winning streak came to an end as the Tyrese Haliburton-less Indiana Pacers snuck away with a 118-114 victory, moving the Raptors once again back three games below .500.
"Just overall low energy, low compete level, lack of execution, not really trying to get done what we were trying to get done," Fred VanVleet said. "Really just got completely outplayed.”
The irony of it all is Toronto could have had the man that snapped the home winning streak, Canada’s own Andrew Nembhard who nailed the game-winning three-pointer, a step-back jumper after shaking off Pascal Siakam with a minute to go. If not for the Thad Young trade with San Antonio that moved Toronto 13 spots lower in the draft, the Raptors would have been in position to draft the Aurora native, selected two spots ahead of Christian Koloko in the second round.
"It was fun," said Nembhard, one of three Canadians to start for the Pacers alongside fellow rookie Bennedict Mathurin and Oshae Brissett. "Knowing how many people were out there watching me, friends and family, it gave me a certain sense of confidence."
Nembhard had his way with the Raptors all night. Nobody couldn’t seem to contain the rookie guard who zig-zagged his way through Toronto’s defense for buckets at the rim. When the Pacers did get the ball moving, taking advantage of weak point-of-attack defense from the Raptors, Nembhard buried his hometown team from behind the arc, scoring 16 of his 25 points in the first half.
The Pacers kept Siakam under wraps in the first half, forcing Toronto to lean on the pick-and-roll attack of Fred VanVleet and Jakob Poeltl. The two kept the Raptors close, scoring 29 of Toronto’s 52 first-half points but nobody else could get anything going as O.G. Anunoby couldn't find a groove.
With Scottie Barnes, Gary Trent Jr., and Precious Achiuwa all sidelined, Will Barton got the start, his first of the season for Toronto. It wasn’t pretty. He was repeatedly picked on by the Pacers on the defensive end and provided almost nothing offensively, failing to convert on any of his five three-point attempts.
Jeff Dowtin saw early playing Wednesday before Toronto eventually gave Malachi Flynn a try. It was Flynn who put Toronto ahead in the third quarter, connecting on a side-step three after a kick-out pass from Siakam. He drained another three early in the fourth quarter, finishing eight points on 2-for-5 shooting.
"He did a good job," Nurse said of Flynn. "Certainly checked in and made it made a couple threes and those were big because we weren't making very many and we shot 20% for the game, so those were certainly important for us and he worked pretty hard."
But it was VanVleet who provided virtually everything from Toronto’s backcourt, driving through the lane to nail a late shot clock bucket before pulling Myles Turner out to the perimeter with dribble penetration and whizzing a pass inside to Poeltl for a bucket as the Raptors hung around. He had 28 points and 11 assists in a game-high 43 minutes.
Siakam’s early patience paid off for Toronto as the 28-year-old made headway late. His early passing and seven assists Wednesday eventually opened up the offense for himself as he got into his short-mid range game and connected on a crucial and-1 through tough contact as the Raptors pulled ahead by four. Even when the Pacers responded to recapture the lead, Siakam kept coming back, nailing a driving layup before posting up Nembhard for a bucket off the glass, finishing the night with a game-high 31 points and 10 rebounds.
"We’re down a couple guys and missing some scoring and things like that. You need Fred, Pascal. O.G., our main guys to step up and play and I didn’t think Pascal was into the game early but he certainly got going towards the end of the (first) half and certainly most of the second half," said Nurse.
Toronto did get some help Wednesday night as the Atlanta Hawks and Chicago Bulls both lost their matchups, keeping the Raptors in the ninth seed for now. The loss, however, does mean Indiana has the tiebreaker over the Raptors this season, now just two games back of Toronto in the East.
Up Next: Detroit Pistons
The Raptors will continue their homestand Friday night when the Detroit Pistons come to town for a 7:30 p.m. ET tipoff
