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Toronto Raptors centre Jonas Valanciunas celebrates after making a basket against the Indiana Pacers on Monday.Tom Szczerbowski

Through two playoff games, Jonas Valanciunas has been a seven-foot headache for the Indiana Pacers. So with two days off to prepare for Game 3, the Pacers will have some new wrinkles to show the Toronto Raptors big man when the series resumes in Indianapolis on Thursday.

Toronto's 23-year-old Lithuanian centre has amassed 35 points and 34 rebounds through the first two games of this tied series. Indiana doesn't have nearly the talent in the post – no one that can contain Valanciunas. Plus so far, they've focused more on stopping Toronto all-stars Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan.

"He's been huge – literally," Indiana star Paul George said. "We're doing a good job on Kyle and DeMar, but Valanciunas has stepped up. He's the one that's causing us problems right now and we have to figure it out."

The postseason is just a few days old, but Valanciunas is so far the leading rebounder in the NBA playoffs – averaging 17 a game. His name tops the list of board-nabbing stars such as Kevin Love, Blake Griffin, Al Horford and Andre Drummond. He's been bulldozing Indiana's front-court players to score on cutting layups, tip-ins and countless alley-oop dunks.

Those monster stats could be much tougher to come by as the Pacers immerse themselves in more and more game film on Valanciunas as the series wears on.

"Things are going to get much more physical for him – like when he's roaming around out there, I imagine they're going to hit him," said Raptors assistant coach Nick Nurse, who spends a lot of time working independently with Valanciunas. "They'll crank up the physicality and try to limit his touches to places on the floor where he's not as comfortable."

While scoring isn't the top priority on Valanciunas's list of roles to play on this team, his point production has been a necessity while Lowry and DeRozan have both been shooting poorly so far in the series.

"We've told JV, we want him to protect the rim, rebound and screen – keep doing those three things, and if you get 20 points, great, we'll love it," Nurse said. "But if you get six, eight, 10 points because they change the scheme a bit, then those other three things still need to remain a constant."

If Indiana increases its physicality on Valanciunas, he'll have to be careful not to get baited into cheap fouls – as he did in Game 1 when he fouled out late in the game. Toronto's coaching staff has stressed to him in film study that Indy likes to get tangled up in his long arms to aggravate him.

It's rewarding for Toronto coach Dwane Casey to see Valanciunas enjoying playoff success, since he feels people were too impatient and critical of the youngster in his first few seasons after the Raptors drafted him fifth over all in 2011.

"I'm proud, because everyone wanted that kid to be a superstar when he first got here, and he wasn't ready, but he's grown, he's developed, he's worked his behind off," Casey said. "He's not a finished product. The sky's the limit for that young man. His next phase will be shooting the outside shot, maybe some day the three-ball. He's got so much growth coming in so many areas."

Far from the fiery Valanciunas who has been pumping his chest, flexing and hollering in celebration on the court during the playoffs, he isn't expressing any contentment whatsoever off the court.

"Let's not get too excited – it's just two games," Valanciunas said. "Let's keep it quiet. I've got to do the same thing with the same energy in Game 3."

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