The default position of the Toronto Raptors is that nobody believes in them, nobody likes them and everyone wants to see them fail.
"We got a lot of haters on this city," the Air Canada Centre MC bellowed in the lead-up to Game 2. "A lot of people who say we don't deserve to be in the playoffs."
Nobody said that, but it's a good line. It hasn't worked, but it looks good on a T-shirt.
In photos: Raptors take Game Two against the Pacers
Perhaps the Raptors are finally beginning to outgrow their compulsive outsider-ism and discover a deeper truth. That they're good enough not to care what people say about them.
On Monday night, the Raptors did something they hadn't managed in two years. It wasn't win (though they did that). It was to spend an entire game without looking like they were waiting for multiple sandbags to begin dropping from the rafters and crushing them one man at a time.
For the first time since the breakout against Brooklyn, they looked as if they believed in themselves. The result was a 98-87 victory.
"It doesn't matter if I'm at my best, if DeMar's at his best, if JV (Jonas Valanciunas) is at his best, a win is a win," Kyle Lowry said afterward.
It gets said a lot around these parts, but it's starting to sound like a plan.
None of the dour themes of the first game were overturned exactly. Instead, they were circumvented. It wasn't their offence or all-stars that rescued the Raptors. Instead, the role players got their arms around the Indiana Pacers and suffocated them early and late.
Of the two absent leaders, one did show up. Lowry didn't put up a remarkable stat line, but he was the driving force behind everything the Raptors did well. When his shot didn't materialize after a few speculative threes in the early going, he began cutting to the hoop seeking contact.
"He was brilliant playing with force going downhill," coach Dwane Casey said.
The night's only off-note was the continued slide of DeMar DeRozan.
During the regular season, DeRozan was the second-most fouled player in the league. On Monday, he didn't take a single free throw. Four teammates outscored him. He remained seated for all of the fourth quarter. Instead, rookie Norman Powell – who lost his own starting spot on the night to the returning DeMarre Carroll – played those minutes.
"I just liked the energy and defensive toughness that Norm was bringing at his position," Casey said afterward. It wasn't meant as a rebuke. But for DeRozan, it is impossible to take it any other way.
Casey emphatically rejected the idea that he will have any words with his all-star over his play.
"It's not the time of year for that," Casey said.
Whatever problems DeRozan is having, he's going to have to figure his own way out of them.
Aside from that, it was nothing but bright spots up and down the roster.
They began with Jonas Valanciunas. One of the storylines lost in the disappointment of Game 1 was the pre-tremors given off by the Toronto centre. Foul trouble stopped him there. He really began cracking the ground under the Pacers basket on Monday.
The Lithuanian piled up 13 points and 7 rebounds in the first 12 minutes. Singlehanded, he came close to outscoring the entire Indiana team in that frame. He had a career playoff scoring high midway through the second quarter.
Indiana doesn't match up well with Toronto anywhere, but in the spot Paul George happens to be standing. They match up most horribly in the middle, where they deploy a collection of big, soft men with occasionally interesting hair. Valanciunas is capable of eating their lunch from now until forever. Indiana coach Frank Vogel indicated that that is his sole point of real concern afterwards.
Patrick Patterson and Cory Joseph were once again more than just effective from the bench. Whenever Indiana threatened to overcome the gap – at one point closing the imbalance from 18 points to five – Toronto's supporting cast was there to push them back.
The main problem – Paul George – was not stopped, but effectively contained by a variety of defenders. There is no doubting that he is the most dangerous player in this series.
"I'm kind of upset about this one," George said afterward. Based on performance, he was the only Pacer who has the right to feel that way.
Though the room was loud, it quieted every time he touched the ball. Though his shot wasn't falling predictably, he has a way of finding easy contact. He rarely looks unconfident, but right now he looks as if he's found a way to steal DeRozan's mojo and add it to his usual supply.
The ACC crowd only really allowed themselves to get on top of him once the game was out of control with only a few minutes remaining.
The game was long gone then, but the moment still felt remarkable. The ACC's modern high-point in terms of atmosphere was that first, hopeful run against Brooklyn in 2014. For each of those four games, the arena occasionally got so loud it hurt.
It's never been back to that. But for a few moments in Monday's late going, the crowd touched the same neighbourhood. The Raptors didn't just break their own jinx. They broke everyone else's.
There's still the same long ways to go, but for the first time during these three years of postseason, the Raptors feel genuinely on top of things. It's no longer a question of climbing out from underneath their bad reputation. It's a question of maintaining their place above it.
Cathal Kelly