After a road win in Indianapolis in Game 3 earlier this week, the Raptors came into Saturday's Game 4 against the Pacers with a chance to establish a commanding lead on their Eastern Conference quarterfinals foes. Instead, the Pacers bounced back from two straight losses and led wire-to-wire in a 100-83 victory that will send the series back to Canada in a 2-2 deadlock.
George Hill and Ian Mahinmi led all scorers with 22 points each, and they helped the Pacers build a lead that ballooned to as many as 25 points in the second quarter, as Indiana cruised by the cold-shooting Raptors.
Toronto made just eight of 30 threes, and never quite threw the outcome into doubt, despite whittling the lead down to a dozen or so points late in the fourth quarter. Indiana led by 15 points at halftime, but never led by fewer than 11 points in the second half.
The series, in which all four games have been decided by at least 10 points, will now shift back to Toronto, where the Raptors lost Game 1 -- and home-court advantage -- before taking Game 2. Game 5 will take place on Tuesday.
1. The Raptors couldn't recover from a slow start
Indiana raced out of the gates on a 7-0 run in the game's first two minutes, and built a 14-point lead late in the first quarter by hitting three straight threes. That lead would swell in the second quarter, but after the Raptors cut it back into the teens before halftime, the Pacers wouldn't lead by 20 again until very late in the game.
But they also never let Toronto back within shouting distance, and that's a sign that the Raptors can't afford to put themselves in another hole like this one as the series wears on. Keeping Kyle Lowry out of foul trouble and establishing Jonas Valanciunas early would seem like smart ways to avoid an early deficit.
2. Ian Mahinmi can be a force
Mahinmi languished for years as a reserve with the Spurs and Mavericks, then as Roy Hibbert's backup, but he has come into his own after shifting into Frank Vogel's starting lineup this season. He asserted himself on Saturday, after Valanciunas and Myles Turner had spent the first three games flashing the potential that makes them among the NBA's most promising young bigs: Mahinmi added 10 rebounds and five assists to his 22 points, while helping take Valanciunas out of the game, and cranked one surprisingly powerful dunk early in the fourth quarter.
Perhaps that's part of why Paul George stuck up for Mahinmi after some contact by DeMarre Carroll on a free throw that would draw a technical foul.
3. And so the Pacers won without Paul George being great
George's evolution into a star has helped the Pacers stay competitive in the Eastern Conference, but they have needed him to star to be great. On Saturday, he scored just 19 points, and the Pacers won just their second playoff game in which George failed to score 20 points since 2014.
That's what happens when role players like Hill and Mahinmi step up.