INDIANAPOLIS

Basketball is to Indiana what hockey is to Canada, but if the crowd for Game 3 was any indication, fans here don’t seem to be believers in this group of Pacers.

Banker’s Life Fieldhouse took a while to fill up and Raptors supporters could be heard screaming throughout, often drawing boos. In fact, long after many Indiana fans had filed out about halfway through the fourth quarter on Thursday, Raptors supporters could still be heard screaming and yelling.

The Raptors noticed, particularly DeMar DeRozan.

“We actually heard them during the anthem,” DeRozan said, cracking a wide smile when asked about the travelling support.

“That’s cool, man. To be able to see the purple jerseys, red jerseys, Raptors fans cheering, that’s a cool thing. It’s been kinda cool the last couple of years, honestly man, when we go on the road. We experienced it in Brooklyn. It’s big when you can hear that. No matter if it’s one fan. . . that kind of motivates us, honestly. We already feel like 19,000 people against us as it is, so just to hear some Raptor fans is definitely big,” he said.

A local hoops columnist took the Pacers crowd to task in a column after the game, but admitted that Indiana’s effort level and performance thus far didn’t give many people a reason to get behind them.

Meanwhile, fans in Jurassic Park back in Toronto were yelling “MVP” late in the game for Jonas Valanciunas and partied into the night.

In Indy, fan favourite turned broadcaster Morris Peterson was asked to pose for many pictures with Toronto fans during the game as well.

BEAST ON THE BOARDS

Jonas Valanciunas has hauled in 19, 15 and 14 rebounds so far, including 20 on the offensive glass, which is more than any Pacer has overall.

He has dominated and leads the playoffs in rebounding.

Can he keep it up? Only time will tell, but right now, Valanciunas is in historic company.

He has grabbed 34.6% of available rebounds while on the floor (total rebound percentage), the ninth-best mark ever for a player who suited up for at least three games of a series, according to Basketballreference.com.

While the names aren’t all familiar, ex-Raptor Marcus Camby is No. 3 and another former Raptor, Ed Davis, is No. 11.

NO MO

DeMarre Carroll doesn’t believe in momentum carrying over.

“Nah. I think every game contains its own momentum,” he said when asked if the Raptors now have an edge based on the past two games.

“I believe in going out and playing hard and giving yourself a chance to win.”

Kyle Lowry had an even stronger take.

“It means nothing, it means nothing, it’s a new game. Game 4 will be a completely new game,” Lowry said.

“We can’t worry about what we did the last two games. At the end of the day, we’re just level-headed. We’re not up, we’re not down, we’re just trying to continue to keep getting better.”

FEELING FINE

Terrence Ross was not feeling any ill effects after playing in Game 3. Ross had been in the NBA’s concussion protocol a few days ago, but was fully recovered and suited up.

“I feel good,” Ross said after practice.

Ross said if the Raptors “keep defence first” they will be in a good position.

HIGH PRAISE

Casey lauded the work of upper management during free agency last summer.

“The front office did and excellent job, Masai did an excellent job of recognizing what we needed to find the right guys. I knew what we needed and I knew that those guys got it,” Casey said.

“The personality of Cory, the personality of Biz, they’re self-starters, you don’t have to say giddy-up to those guys. That is huge for a second unit coming in and the most important thing is they accept their roles.

“They accept their roles, they embrace their roles, they take pride in it and so does Pat. They take pride in what they do and who they are. A lot of guys in that situation would want more minutes, want to hear their name called out as starters and you don’t get any of that from those three men and that’s so important to the chemistry of our team.”

AROUND THE RIM

According to basketballreference.com, Toronto’s odds of winning this series are now 78.9%, odds of winning the second round are 55.6% and winning the Eastern Conference Finals is 22.8% ... Drake posted a picture to Instagram that had cartoon versions of Lowry and DERozan looking happy and Pacers players Paul George and Monta Ellis with a tear coming from their eye with a caption reading 2-1 ... Lowry on Bismack Biyombo’s defence: “Biz is unique at what he does and makes our job a lot easier” ... Casey said Patrick Patterson is so important that sometimes it’s hard not to play him for long stretches at a time, but believes he can handle it.