The Toronto Raptors won a wild one against the Indiana Pacers on Nov. 22. It was a high-scoring affair that featured 26 lead changes and came down to the wire.
The Raptors who were coming off an embarrassing effort against the Orlando Magic desperately needed a strong bounce back performance and they delivered.
Pascal Siakam led the way with a game-high 36 points. Also, Scottie Barnes was big in the second-half of this one and got the game winning And-1 bucket. It was off a beautiful play call drawn up out of a timeout by Darko Rajakovic:
Toronto got the Pacers with the fake handoff for Scottie Barnes. pic.twitter.com/tOusDeDT84
— Steve Jones Jr. (@stevejones20) November 23, 2023
Barnes caught the Pacers defenders napping with a fake handoff to Siakam, who Indiana was zeroed in on.Then Barnes made an aggressive move to the basket and finished with authority. This gave the Raptors lead for good.
What’s crazy about this play is that it’s almost identical to a play the Raptors ran 5 years ago with Jonas Valanciunas, which was a game-tying dunk against the Milwaukee Bucks:
what a time to be alive pic.twitter.com/g0Hn2ThFqG
— Keerthika Uthayakumar (@keerthikau) November 23, 2023
What is old is new again. This was the perfect play to call in the moment and it worked to perfection for the Raptors.
The Raptors got a much needed win on the second night of a back-to-back against a Pacers team that had the No. 1 offense in the league.
Toronto will look to use the momentum from this big win and try to build off it moving forward.
Up next for Raptors
The Raptors will look to make it two wins in a row when they travel back home to take on the Chicago Bulls on Nov. 24.
This will be Toronto’s third In-Season Tournament game, but it won’t mean much since the Raptors are all but eliminated from the tournament. However, this game still counts towards the overall standings.
The Raptors want to come out and take control against a Bulls team that is struggling.
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