TORONTO-- Jonas Valanciunas scored 23 points and grabbed 15 rebounds and the Toronto Raptors defeated the Indians Pacers 98-87 on Monday night to even their first-round playoff series at one win each.
Kyle Lowry added 18 points and dished out nine assists for the Raptors, who ended a string of seven straight losses in the playoffs.
Paul George led the Pacers with 28 points.
The Raptors led by as many as 18 points in the first half, but the Pacers trimmed that to four during the third quarter, which ended with Toronto leading by eight.
The Raptors regained their 18-point lead in the fifth minute of the fourth quarter and had the lead at 19 with less than five minutes to play.
Cory Joseph added 16 points off the bench, Patrick Patterson chipped in with 14 points and DeMar DeRozan scored 10 for Toronto.
Monta Ellis had 15 points for Indiana.
The Raptors started DeMarre Carroll at forward instead of Norman Powell. But Powell soon was in the game after Carroll picked up two fouls in the first three minutes. Carroll finished with two points and Powell scored three.
The Raptors opened a 14-point lead with 3:33 left in the first quarter on a dunk by Valanciunas.
Toronto led 27-16 at the end of the first quarter with Valanciunas leading the way with 13 points and seven rebounds.
George was limited to three points in 7:26 of playing time in the opening quarter after picking up two fouls.
The Raptors' lead climbed to 18 early in the second quarter.
The Pacers trimmed the lead to five when Ellis completed a three-point play with a free throw with 4:41 to play in the half.
The Raptors worked the lead to 10 before Ellis cut it to five again with a 3-pointer that ended the half. Toronto took a 53-48 lead into the intermission, as Valanciunas had 19 points and 10 rebounds. George led Indiana with 13 first-half points and Ellis scored 12.
Toronto reserve forward Terrence Ross was kept out of the second half under concussion protocol. He had six points.
George cut the Toronto lead to four points on two free throws with 2:43 to play in the third quarter.
Joseph made two free throws to close out the third-quarter scoring with Toronto leading 74-66.
Lowry made two free throws to bump Toronto's lead to 11 points with 10:11 left in the fourth quarter. He added two more foul shots less than a minute later and the Raptors led by 13.
After a Pacers miss, the Raptors came back to score on a reverse layup by Joseph to take a 15-point lead.
Bismack Biyombo increase the lead to 18 points when he followed his dunk with a free throw.
Lowry made three free throws with 4:19 remaining to increase the lead to 19 points.
