Gregg Doyel

gregg.doyel@indystar.com

Toronto Raptors center Jonas Valanciunas is three inches taller and 25 pounds heavier, but Indiana Pacers forward Paul George was stalking him, walking him down, backing him up. All game the Pacers had been playing angry, beating up the Raptors on the court and on the scoreboard and every which way one NBA team can beat up another – “They kicked our butts,” is how Raptors coach Dwane Casey described it – but Paul George was no longer playing.

Looked like he wanted to beat up the 7-foot, 255-pound Valanciunas for real.

“I was just going for the rebound,” Valanciunas softly objected afterward. “I was not trying to hit him.”

Hence Toronto’s problem: The Pacers were trying to hit the Raptors, metaphorically and categorically, and for 48 minutes they did just that until the referees pulled them off the battered Raptors – calling an end to a 100-83 Pacers blowout that sent so many messages, all of which can be boiled down to four words:

We have a series.

“We set the tone early,” said forward Myles Turner after the Pacers evened the series at 2-all.

Raptors forward DeMarre Carroll put it more viscerally.

“They threw the first punch,” he said.

The Raptors played as if they didn’t see this aggression, this fight, coming from the Pacers. And can you blame them? For three games the Raptors have manhandled the Pacers, even Game 1 in Toronto when the Pacers won, but only because Paul George was the best player on the floor – at both ends – to make up for Toronto’s decisive 52-38 edge in rebounding.

For three games the Raptors have taken the Pacers’ money. Perhaps they walked onto the court for Game 4 expecting the Pacers to reach into their pocket and hand over their wallets. The Pacers reached into their pockets, all right – and pulled out brass knuckles.

It started early when Game 4 MVP Ian Mahinmi (22 points, 10 rebounds, five assists) had the ball 15 feet from the basket. The only person between the 6-11, 262-pound Mahinmi and the rim was Raptors forward Luis Scola. Mahinmi took care of that detail, chucking Scola to the ground and dancing over his prone body for a layup. All three officials swallowed their whistle, perhaps from shock. What was that? Was that the Pacers showing some steel?

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It was, and it continued. Late in the second quarter, Raptors scoring leader DeMar DeRozan attacked the rim and Myles Turner attacked back, swatting the shot out of bounds and then spitting ice-cold fire at DeRozan under his breath. Early in the third quarter, Raptors guard Kyle Lowry missed a 3-pointer and Turner established rebounding position by establishing an elbow into Valanciunas’ chops, throwing an outlet pass as Valanciunas checked his mouth for blood.

For three games Valanciunas has been the hunter in this series, dominating the boards and manhandling the Pacers – remember how he flipped the 6-11 Turner over his hip in Toronto? – but in Game 4 he was the hunted. After averaging an NBA postseason-high 16 rebounds per game through three games, Valanciunas managed just six in Game 4. Then he made the biggest mistake of the game with 5:03 left and Mahinmi making the second of two free throws and George having the temerity to hustle past Valanciunas in case Mahinmi missed.

Valanciunas waved his right arm in George’s direction, catching George in the throat. Mahinmi’s foul shot was dropping through the net as George was dropping all pretense of playing basketball. Now he was walking ominously into Valanciunas’ personal space.

“All night Jonas is throwing his elbows and trying to lock arms," George said. "It was almost the play before he did the same thing, and I let it slide. Ian shot a free throw ... and next thing you know, (Valanciunas') hands, once again, are coming up towards my throat. And I didn’t like that."

With Bankers Life Fieldhouse roaring and all hell about to break loose, two Toronto teammates came to their enormous teammate’s aid. Mahinmi pulled George away, but one of those two Raptors who stepped between George and Valanciunas – DeMarre Carroll – decided he’d had enough of Paul George. After Game 3, George accused Carroll of fouling him repeatedly on shot attempts. Carroll fired back in the media. And now, with the crowd making a deep and ugly noise, Carroll was trying to get at Paul George until teammates calmed him down and officials called three technical fouls.

In the locker room afterward, nattily attired in a vest and wingtips and fancy hat, Carroll tried not to escalate this war of words – then went ahead and did it anyway.

“He made it a point to talk to the refs,” is how Carroll started his soliloquy on Paul George. “I don’t know, you know? I want to save my money. I like to keep my money. I’ve got a daughter, I’ve got a son, I've got to buy Pampers. But let me just put it this way: I wish it was the old days, you know? The Detroit Pistons days. The ‘Bad Boys.’ ”

The Bad Boy Pistons of Bill Laimbeer, Rick Mahorn, Dennis Rodman and John Salley fought. A lot. That’s what this game on Saturday felt like: a fight. And for the first time all series, the Pacers were fully engaged in the fray. Even screens were dangerous, like the one Mahinmi set early in the third quarter. Paul George was dribbling up the court and Carroll was following him and then he was running into Mahinmi, who threw his shoulder into the screen – just to be thorough – and sent Carroll flying to the floor.

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“From the start of the game,” Valanciunas said, “they were physical.”

Said Lowry: “Tonight they did play extremely hard.”

Back to Toronto they go, this seven-game series reduced to a best-of-three affair. It has been violent, but in just one direction. Now the violence is going both ways, and DeMarre Carroll makes it sound as if the escalation will continue.

“We weren’t playing with no aggressiveness, no physicality,” he said. “We’ve got to respond to this.”

We have a series.

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at@GreggDoyelStar or atwww.facebook.com/gregg.doyel.