Written by Mike Mazzeo at ESPN.com
Rest easy, Toronto.
Facing a virtual must-win Game 2 on Monday night, the Toronto Raptors responded to adversity with aplomb, snapping a seven-game playoff losing streak with a 98-87 victory over the Indiana Pacers that evened their first-round series at 1-1.
It was Toronto’s first postseason victory in nearly two years.
“It means a lot because it takes a little bit of the monkey off your back,” Kyle Lowry said.
Lowry shot 4-for-13 from the field but still managed to produce 18 points, nine assists and seven rebounds while making all 10 of his free throw attempts.
“It’s tough to have that monkey on your back and knowing that’s how it is and people are always going to assume and think, ‘Here we go again,'” Lowry said. “But for us, we have to just stay positive and do the things that we’ve done and just continue to grow.”
It seemed as though the tension had mounted in Toronto all the way to the top of the CN Tower after the Raptors dropped their third consecutive Game 1 at home last Saturday afternoon. Lowry and DeMar DeRozan went a combined 8-for-32 from the field, while Dwane Casey’s coaching strategies and rotations were met with heavy scrutiny.
Lowry and DeRozan (5-for-18) didn’t make shots again on Monday night, but Casey’s decision to sit his struggling All-Star swingman for the entire fourth quarter in favor of a lineup that featured his All-Star point guard and four reserves paid dividends. The Raptors outscored the Pacers 15-5 over the first four minutes of the final period and put the game away with Paul George (28 points overall, four in the fourth) resting on the bench.
The seven-game losing streak, it’s easy to sit here and see that,” Casey said. “But again, the hard part is to see the growth in this program — where we’ve come, where we’re going, how we’re getting there. The guys that have been here every day see that. And I think it’s really important to keep that in mind.
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