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Gay hits game-winning shot for Raptors

INDIANAPOLIS - Recently acquired forward Rudy Gay enabled the Toronto Raptors to end the Indiana Pacers' 15-game home winning streak by making a pull-up jumper over Paul George with 1.7 seconds left in overtime to lead the Raptors to a 100-98 victory at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Friday.

"In the end, our guys hung in there," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. "No one said this process was going to be easy. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it."

The Pacers hadn't lost at home since Denver beat them in early December.

George's final shot as time expired rolled around the rim before falling out.

"Give credit to Toronto," Pacers Frank Vogel said. "They outworked us on the glass and turned us over 19 times."

David West led the Pacers with 30 points, and George added 26 points.

Gay had 23 points, with DeMar DeRozan chipping in 22 for Toronto.

The Pacers blew their chance to win the game in regulation.

They had a four-point lead with 10 seconds remaining, but crumbled down the stretch.

Amir Johnson cut it to two points on a bucket with six seconds left. Then West tried to throw a long pass to Lance Stephenson. Gay picked off the pass, passed to Johnson, who missed his first shot, but got his own rebound. Johnson gathered the ball and put it back up before the clock expired to tie the game.

The officials took several minutes reviewing the play before determining it was good, sending the game to overtime.

"We did have a timeout and in that situation - we've been there 100 times - we look for a safe inbounds, and if we don't have a safe inbounds, we use a timeout," Vogel said. "We had Lance streaking for an easy two that would have put the game on ice. Just a miscue."

"I can't be that careless at the end of the game with the ball," West said. "I second-guessed myself, hesitated a little bit and threw it short."

The Pacers didn't do themselves any favors in overtime, either.

West committed another turnover, point guard George Hill missed a chance to give the Pacers the lead when he went only 1-for-2 from the line with 90 seconds left, and Hill turned the ball over on a drive to the basket with 10 seconds left in overtime and the score tied.

"We just didn't make some smart plays," West said. "We just weren't able to close the game the right way. We didn't make many plays down the stretch. They made us pay for it."

The Pacers maintained a single-digit lead for two-plus quarters before finally getting a double-digit lead when Roy Hibbert threw a hook pass underneath to a wide-open West to give them a 63-53 lead.

But despite trailing for most of the game, the Raptors never felt they were out of it because the Pacers never had complete control of things.

It finally caught up to the Pacers at the start of the fourth quarter.

Toronto scored the first eight points of the quarter and finally tied the score at 72-72 with a little more than nine minutes left on a layup by Gay. Toronto got a 74-72 advantage on another Gay basket.

On their first seven possessions of the final quarter, the Pacers missed six shots and committed a turnover.

Indiana finally ended its scoring drought when Stephenson found West for a bucket underneath to tie the score at 74-74.

The Pacers went up 77-76 when Hill saved the ball from going out of bounds and threw it to George for a 3-pointer from straight away.

The Raptors tied the score at 79-79 on a free throw from DeRozen with 2:51 left.

"Our guys grinded it out, grinded it out and stuck with it," Casey said. "Again, we're in a process and we're building something here, especially with Rudy Gay."

NOTES: George is participating in this year's 3-point shooting competition during All-Star weekend. George, who was in the dunk contest last year, is shooting 38.7 percent on 3-pointers this season. Swingman Gerald Green, who won the slam dunk contest in 2007, will try to do it again when he participates in the event this year in his hometown of Houston. "It's good to be able to wear a Pacers jersey and do it at a time we're having a terrific season," Green said. "I just want to do something positive and make a good note of the organization. Hopefully I can defend the one I won earlier. This is my last competition for sure." ... Swingman Sam Young missed the game with the flu. Green, who was demoted earlier this season, was back in the rotation as the fourth wing player against the Toronto Raptors. ... Raptors center Andrea Bargnani came off the bench for the second straight game as he works his way back from an elbow and wrist injury.