Raptors-Pacers was so stupid and so much fun

The Indiana Pacers and Toronto Raptors brought the one saving grace to us. Together, they gifted the world a seven-game series that was never exactly “good,” but was consistently silly and compelling all the way through. With apologies to Miami-Charlotte and Purple Shirt Guy, this was the most entertaining series of the first round by a mile.

Raptors-Pacers gave us the superlative play of Paul George, the Raptors finally (and barely) overcoming their playoff demons, lots of Drake memes and a national coming out party for an under-the-radar rookie. Most importantly, it gave us fun, which is not something the rest of the first round can say.

Here’s everything good and bad that made Pacers-Raptors a shining beacon of light in an otherwise dark and depressing first round.

The last time we saw Paul George in the playoffs, he was playing his heart out against LeBron James and the Miami Heat while using every bit of his personal restraint to ignore Lance Stephenson. Since then, George famously suffered one of the decade’s most gruesome leg injuries, while the Pacers switched out their entire core in an effort to join the modern NBA.

George had a fine regular season, but his effort against Toronto was confirmation that he had again arrived as one of the league’s best players. For most of this series, the Raptors had no answer for him:

George gave us an instant reminder of how great he can be with 33 points in the Pacers’ upset victory in Game 1. He gave us the best offensive performance of the first round with 39 points in Game 5. He exits the postseason as the playoffs’ second leading scorer at 27.3 points per game, just 0.2 away from Kyrie Irving.

What a player. What a comeback.

Norman Powell had a solid four-year career at UCLA, but fell to the 46th overall pick in the second round because of concerns over his outside shot. NBA general managers are regretting that right now. Powell went 3-for-4 from beyond the arc within a 13-point performance in Game 7 to give the Raptors a vitally important injection of life off the bench.

Paul George was a fan:

Powell scored double figures in three of the last four games of this series, and it’s likely that Toronto does not win without him. It’s safe to say the Raptors found a major steal in the second round.

Lowry and DeRozan are both tremendous players, worthy All-Stars and big reasons why the Raptors enjoyed their best season in franchise history this year. They also have a strange habit of disappearing completely in the playoffs. That was especially true against the Pacers. The numbers weren’t pretty:

Kyle Lowry: 26-of-84 from the field (31 percent) and 7-of-39 from three (18 percent)

DeMar DeRozan: 34-of-106 from the field (32 percent) and (2-of-13) from three (15 percent)

For the series, Lowry and DeRozan combined to score 181 points on 190 shots. Those two should be buying Cory Joseph, Bismack Biyombo and Powell lunch for the rest of the summer.

Drake was on his “Raptors pay my bills shit” throughout this series. Here he is furiously clapping behind Rodney Stuckey in Game 5:

Who could forget his cringe-worthy Instagram post that came hours later?

The Raptors’ global ambassador even released a new album during this series, his long-anticipated “Views.” On the day of its release, the Raps lost by a cool 18 points. I still don’t know how this “Views” promotional image didn’t get the Crying Jordan treatment.

In the end, things worked out pretty well the self-proclaimed “6 God,” as always seems to happen. Just know this still doesn’t make up for “Keep the Family Close.”

Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

There various points throughout this series where it appeared neither team actually wanted to win. SB Nation NBA editor Mike Prada put it best in Game 7:

It happened, of course.

Game 5 was the best example of what made this series such an intoxicating mess. The Pacers were in control the entire game until Toronto went on a 24-2 run in the fourth quarter. Indiana fought back in the final minute and it appeared the Raptors had blown it again when Solomon Hill hit this game-tying shot as time expired:

That fourth quarter was a microcosm of why we couldn’t turn away from this series. There was so much pressure on the Raps after being eliminated in the first round the last two years. The Pacers made collapsing late a habit all year long. It all coalesced over seven games, and the first round was a richer place because of it.

Pacers and Raptors, we salute you. If you can’t be good, you might as well be weird.