The Indiana Pacers will try to maintain their hot shooting Wednesday night when the oppose the Toronto Raptors in Indianapolis.
The Pacers are coming off a 157-152 road win over the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night in an NBA in-season tournament game in which they shot 60.6 percent from the floor. Indiana has won all three of its tournament games and has clinched a quarterfinal spot with one game remaining.
The Raptors will complete a two-game, two-day road trip after losing 126-107 to the Orlando Magic on Tuesday. Toronto fell to 0-2 in in-season tournament action.
The Pacers trailed by as many as 20 points against Atlanta, but they rallied behind Tyrese Haliburton. The 23-year-old guard scored 26 of his 37 points in the third quarter and finished with 16 assists.
Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said, "Tyrese, you just run out of accolades. Fearless. Leader. Great competitor. Winner. I'm so happy for him."
Carlisle added, "The game was exceedingly difficult, as we knew it would be. Down as many as 20, got to 13 at halftime, talked about being resilient and what we needed. We needed to play with more force and aggression at both ends.
"This is one of those games with so many good offensive players out there that getting conventional old-time stops is just ... it's a different game out there."
Indiana's Buddy Hield scored 24 points on 9-for-11 shooting, including 6-for-6 on 3-pointers. He scored 13 points in the fourth quarter, sinking 3-pointers in the game's final 1:20. The first gave the Pacers a two-point lead, and the second put the Pacers up 155-152 with 52.7 seconds to go after the Hawks had tied the game. He also scored a layup at the buzzer.
"Buddy won us the game," Haliburton said.
Haliburton did not score in the fourth quarter when he was frequently double-teamed, but he had two assists in the period.
"The other thing I was really impressed with was the way Ty trusted his teammates when they started trapping him all over the floor," Carlisle said. "Certain guys have the ability to deliver the ball in a way that creates confidence for teammates. I saw Jason Kidd do it. I saw Luka Doncic do it. And now we're seeing Tyrese do it. His trust in his teammates is another reason this win happened tonight."
Meanwhile, the Raptors got off to a slow start on Tuesday and were unable to overcome it, as they fell behind the Magic by as many as 19 points in the first half. The gap grew to 27 in the fourth quarter.
"We just could not keep up with their pace," Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic said. "We were late to get back, late to get in our defensive positions to help each other. And they were able to score in the paint a lot, which they do on an elite level."
Dennis Schroder led Toronto with 24 points and Pascal Siakam had 16. Neither played in the fourth quarter.
The Raptors were coming off a 142-113 home victory over the Detroit Pistons on Sunday, when they recorded a team-record 44 assists.
The Pacers won all three matchups with the Raptors last season after Toronto won three of the teams' four meetings in 2021-22.
—Field Level Media