Pacers lacked focus and toughness in losing home court to Raptors

1:31 AM ET

INDIANAPOLIS — One of the differences between a team that knows it can win and one that hopes to win is mental toughness.

Successful teams don’t get distracted by things they can’t control. The agenda and the focus stays the same.

That wasn’t the Indiana Pacers on Thursday night against the Toronto Raptors.

The Pacers didn’t take long to show how fragile they were when they didn’t handle adversity well early in the game. The more calls that didn’t go their way, the more they griped at the officials and the less they competed.

That doesn’t work against a team that won 56 games during the regular season and entered the playoffs as the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. The Pacers were thoroughly outplayed in their 101-85 loss to the Raptors in Game 3. Toronto leads the series 2-1.

Paul George and the Pacers trailed by as much as 23 points and were distracted by the officiating in the Game 3 loss. AP Photo/Michael Conroy

“We didn’t do our job,” Pacers All-Star forward Paul George said. “It sucks. We didn’t take care of business on our home court. We were in the driver’s seat. We have to stay positive. Still have a chance to even this up 2-2, make it a best out of three series.”

Playing angry. Playing with toughness. Playing physical.

That’s what George said the Pacers have to do in Game 4 on Saturday afternoon. The reality is that’s what they should have done in Game 3. Do that and they …

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