Insider: Pacers a 'work in progress' in season-opening loss

TORONTO – Here are the lessons from the Indiana Pacers' season-opening loss in Toronto:

Odds are Paul George and Monta Ellis won't take turns shooting blanks, but when they play more like Rocky and Bullwinkle (combining to shoot 7-of-28) and less like a true dynamic duo, their struggles will be too much for the team to overcome.

Chances are George Hill won't take part in a nightly race with Ian Mahinmi – first one to six personal fouls gets the best spot on the bench – but when Hill, Mahinmi and Ellis all face foul trouble and as a team, Indiana hears the wrong end of the whistle, the defense will crumble and the frustration will mount.

On Wednesday inside the Air Canada Centre, the lessons came often in the Pacers' 106-99 loss. Indiana had some unusual moments that quite frankly won't happen much through the course of the season – "I don't think Monta and Paul George are going to shoot as poorly as they did tonight," Pacers coach Frank Vogel summed up – but as Vogel has shared often the Pacers are a "work in progress" and that work is plenty.

• BOX SCORE: Raptors 106, Pacers 99

"This whole game was a swing off us not making shots," said George, who needed 17 shots for 17 points but added 12 rebounds and 8 assists. "Every time we missed, they got the ball and they were going. We make those shots (then) this game is a lot slower for them. We're able to set up.

"We missed shots, which opened the game up for them."

As a team, Indiana shot 37.2 percent, going cold after posting a 30-point first quarter and building a 16-point lead in the second.

As much as has been made about George as a stretch-4 – surprise, he played the wing and matched up against 3s and 2s all night. And with this alignment of three other guards surrounding George, Indiana set a pace to score 120 points. A fantasy for sure, but still signs pointing to a good start.

Only a mild ankle sprain cooled off C.J Miles from this first quarter flurry of 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting. Even though he wasn't scoring from the floor, George set up Mahinmi for his two makes and after one quarter, the Pacers led 30-20.

Vogel does not put much weight into fast break points, believing that the statistic depends on the whims of NBA scorekeepers. Still, Vogel had to like the number for the Pacers through halftime: 12 fast break points for Indiana, and only one allowed for Toronto. Indiana's eight steals helped create the majority of the Raptors' 12 turnovers – the team had just 14 field goals through the half.

Then things changed after halftime.

The Pacers' defense, as told by Hill, aims for the goal of holding opponents to 88 points, which would mean 44-point halves. But Indiana allowed Toronto to break out of a first-half funk brought on by season opener nerves and settle in to score 69 in the second half.

"I don't think we were as tied together on the defensive end as we normally have been the last couple of years," Hill said. "It's the first game. We've got a lot to improve on, a lot to get better on and we're going to be alright with that."

It didn't help that the Pacers collected 30 fouls; Ellis picked up two early whistles and his departure from the game disrupted the normal rotation, Vogel said. As the game continued, so did the whistles.

At one point, the Pacers were tagged for 23 fouls, while the Raptors had just 13. Naturally, players showed frustration, which continued into the locker room after the game.

"We felt like there were a lot of bad calls," George said. "Close games like that, let us play. You've got a guy like (Kyle) Lowry who's down on one end doing what he wants and then on the other end, he gets touched and the whistle's getting blown. We (were) frustrated. We (were) very frustrated."

Early in the fourth quarter, Hill picked up a technical foul for arguing a foul and later George earned one of his own after complaining to referee Bennie Adams about an offensive foul. George's technical came as Indiana, once trailing by 12 points in the fourth quarter, brought the game to within a one-point possession. A Raptors' free throw followed by a Lowry bucket, however, extended the Raptors' lead back up to six.

"You want to be heard. Anytime the foul count's that crazy up and down where you feel like everything is going against you and you're doing the same thing on the offensive end and nothing's getting called," said Hill, who finished with five fouls (only second to Mahinmi, who fouled out late in the fourth).

"As leaders, you know you've got to voice our opinion the right way but this time it backfired and cost our team two points which could have been a different game. That's on me and P. We've got to work on that and make sure it doesn't happen again."

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The Pacers might have been worked up over the calls but still stayed competitive to climb back from the 12-point fourth quarter deficit. With an Ellis dish to Mahinmi, Indiana took over the lead, 95-93, with two minutes remaining. However, the Raptors answered on the next play and pulled away behind two straight possessions featuring DeMar DeRozan, who scored five points in the span and finished with a game-high 25 points.

Later, with 1:13 remaining, George made a strong move at the basket, got fouled by Bismack Biyombo and had a chance to tie the game. But again, some strange things happened on Wednesday – after hitting his first nine free throws, George blew the 10th. The potential game-tying shot.

"That one hurt," George said. "That one definitely hurt. It would've changed how we closed this game out probably."

Contact Star reporter Candace Buckner at candace.buckner@indystar.com. Follow her on Twitter: @CandaceDBuckner.

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