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Indiana rallies behind ... Ian Mahinmi? Ties series at 2-2
This is where your NBA playoffs are at. Ian Mahinmi is a series-changer.
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The Indiana Pacers center came through with the game of his professional life in a win on Saturday afternoon, leading the Pacers to a 100-83 Game 4 win over the Toronto Raptors. Hobbled by back pain throughout the first three games of the series, Mahinmi notched a career-high 22 points, 10 rebounds a block and five assists as the Pacers locked the series up a 2-2.
Startled by a sluggish start to what should have been a competitive Game 3 on Thursday evening, the Pacers raced out in Game 4 to grab what turned into a 25-point first round lead – the team dropped 28 points in the first quarter after averaging 17 in the first three contests. Pacers coach Frank Vogel left All-Star Paul George in for the entire run as Indiana raced out to a 12-point advantage in the opening frame. That notch worked its way up to 25 points midway through the third quarter as George did damage on both ends and point guard George Hill nailed all five of his shot attempts on his way toward 14 first half points.
The Pacers were clearly aided by the presence of rookie Myles Turner in the starting lineup. Replacing the workmanlike Lavoy Allen, who has struggled to contribute against Toronto thus far, Turner missed a series of long jumpers in his first playoff start but still put the pressure on the Raptors on either end of the court. The 20-year old needed 13 shots to score his four points, but he added seven rebounds, two blocks and unending defensive help in nearly 27 minutes of play.
The Raptors, meanwhile, took an afternoon off.
All-Star DeMar DeRozan paired up equally awful halves, shooting 2-8 in the first half and 2-7 in the second with three turnovers in both settings. Backcourt mate Kyle Lowry was far more active, the polar opposite of his tentative teammate, but he still missed eight of 12 shots in the loss. Mixing an unholy batch of unsure play and ill-timed aggressiveness, the Raptors turned the ball over 11 times in the first 22 minutes of Game 4.
In the face of criticism for his all-bench reserve units, Frank Vogel left Mahinmi out with four different backups for the bulk of the second quarter, and the Pacers maintained the lead – again, moving up to 25 points at one juncture – while Toronto searched for answers. Attempts at drawing Indiana’s top-three ranked defense out of line with a series of pump fakes only resulted in missed three-pointers (stretch big men Luis Scola and Patrick Patterson combined to miss seven of eight from downtown) and lost chances at cutting the lead down to something manageable.
The Raps did compete well enough to knock the deficit down to a manageable 12 points midway through the third period, but the Pacers seemed hardly swayed with Toronto’s leading scorer in DeRozan working without confidence. The Raps’ shooting guard was hounded by both Paul George and George Hill as he struggled to back his way into comfort zones, and too often the result was a hurried jumper or too-late pass as the shot clock moved into the red. The same could be said for Kyle Lowry, who is rarely lacking for confidence (and for good reason).
It was exactly the sort of game that most assumed Indiana would try to enforce in what was a lackluster Game 3 performance. The Pacers were well aware of Toronto’s missteps in two previous first round upsets against Brooklyn in 2014 and Washington in 2015, and Indiana pulled the foot off the throttle in what could have been a primed Game 3 win.
Class moves on back to Toronto for Game 5, though, where Indiana has already taken care of business. Even without the recent tale of Toronto’s first round disappointments, the Pacers have more than enough to at the very least keep things competitive in a gym that will in no way resemble the quarter-strong Raptor contingent present in Game 4 on Saturday. The North will be boisterous, but Indiana matches up well, and they don’t need someone like Ian Mahinmi to have the game of his life as a prerequisite for a Pacer win.
An afternoon for the ages for an unheralded center, though, never hurts; and Mahinmi is to be credited for working through significant back pain on his way toward something to remember.
It’s up to his teammates – the rookie, the All-Star, the hometown hero and the journeyman – to take it from here.
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is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
