The DeMarre Carroll-Paul George matchup is turning into a war of words as well as one of skills.

George, the Indiana Pacers all-star forward, suggested Carroll, the Raptors’ most aggressive defender, was the beneficiary of lax officiating in Thursday’s Game 3 because Carroll got away with treating George as a tackling dummy at times. Carroll responded Friday in a way that is sure to irk George even more.

“Playoff basketball is physical,” Carroll said. “If it was a cakewalk, there would be a lot of people in the playoffs, right? So I feel like I’m just going to continue to play the way I’ve played him and let him talk to the refs, and I’ll talk to the refs after the season.”

Besides, as Carroll also pointed out: “Obviously, if the refs didn’t call it, it wasn’t a foul, right?”

George shot 12 free throws in Game 3, more than any player on either team.

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Staying the course: Having made one slight change to his starting lineup, Indiana Pacers coach Frank Vogel won’t commit to the new look for Saturday’s Game 4. Vogel was — not surprisingly — non-committal on Friday about replacing Lavoy Allen with Myles Turner as he did to start the second half of Thursday’s Game 3. Turner, a slightly-built rookie, has had more of an offensive impact on the series than Allen, but he’s been overmatched on the glass by Toronto’s frontcourt.

Odd men out: Norm Powell is the odd man out of the Raptors rotation at the moment, and Terrence Ross isn’t far behind. With Carroll off his minutes limit, Powell played just three mop-up minutes in Toronto’s Game 3 win and Ross played less than 10. Coach Dwane Casey said after using 10 players in Game 1 that he needed to pare his rotation to allow players to find a rhythm each night.

Keep calm and carry on: The sense that the Raptors have become more relaxed as the first-round series has gone on is real, according to Luis Scola. The seasoned 35-year-old veteran sees a far more comfortable team now than the one that lost the opener.

“I think there was something in our head, you know?” he said. “A little bit of pressure with the first round, and what was going to happen if we didn’t win the first round, and that made us approach Game 1 with a little bit of a bad mental approach. We were up one or down one in the middle of the fourth quarter, and we panicked. Like, oh my god, how can we be losing by one? Which is not the way you approach the playoffs.”

Since then, the Raptors have rattled off two wins to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series that resumes Saturday afternoon.

Staying strong: Jonas Valanciunas has used his size and strength to beat and batter whichever Indiana Pacers centre he’s been matched up against in the NBA playoffs so far. But the young Raptor has been getting as good as he’s been giving as the series has become more physical. If it’s taking a toll, he’s not letting on.

“I am 23 years old, so I don’t have a right to be sore,” Valanciunas said Friday.

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