George Hill

Here we go again: DeRozan, Lowry are shooting Toronto towards a first-round exit

Published Apr. 23, 2016 7:43 p.m. ET

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The Toronto Raptors were supposed to make easy work of the Indiana Pacers in the teams' first-round playoff series.

This was supposed to be the Raptors' year. The campaign where they would not only get out of the first round, but would get out of the second round, too — and then they'd push for an NBA Finals appearance.

But the Raptors and Pacers' series is tied at two games apiece following Indiana's emphatic 100-83 win Saturday in Indianapolis.

It doesn't take long to find the main problem: DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry.

The Raptors' two best players have been offensively lost in this series, combining for 8-of-27 from the floor in the Game 4 loss, bringing their overall series mark to 40-of-130 (30 percent).

Considering that the Raptors' two most important offensive players are making less than one third of their collective shots, it's frankly amazing that the Raptors are tied in this series. If not for Indiana's offensive problems, this series could easily be 3-1, or over.

Plenty of credit needs to go to Indiana's Paul George and George Hill for their defense on the Raptors' star duo. DeRozan, for instance, has attempted 49 contested shots in the series, per NBA.com, and has only made 11 — that's 22 percent.

But Lowry's struggles can't all be tied to tough defense. He's only made 12 of 36 uncontested shots in the series.

Add in the Raptors' newfound inability to protect the rim — Indiana was 23-of-36 in the restricted area Saturday, behind Ian Mahinmi's career-high 22 points — and Toronto's problems don't look so easy to correct.

Oh, and then there's the bad voodoo of never getting out of the first round.

Yeah, Game 5 carries a lot of weight for the Raptors.

When asked after the game what Toronto can do to change their fate, Lowry was blunt: "Make some shots."

"I feel like the shots ... they're shots that we've made all year," he continued. "Tip your hats, they're scheming for me and DeMar and making our shots a lot tougher. But at the end of the day, we still have to make shots."

Lowry and DeRozan are saying the right things. DeRozan acknowledged in his post-game press conference that he probably should be passing more. And Lowry, being the team leader, preached levelheadedness to his squad:

"I'm positive, I'm confident. We're staying level. We're not staying too high, we're not staying too low," he said.

But if the Raptors' duo struggles again in Game 5, will that levelheadedness do them any good?