Indiana @ Toronto preview

Last Meeting ( Mar 15, 2018 ) Toronto 106, Indiana 99

The Toronto Raptors continue their final homestand of the regular season Friday against the Indiana Pacers with the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs just about sewn up. The Raptors hold a three-game lead over the second-place Boston Celtics with four to play, giving them a chance to clinch homecourt advantage throughout the conference playoffs.

While locking up first place is practically a formality at this point, there is plenty more for Toronto to accomplish in the final week of the regular season. "We've got, what, four games left?" guard DeMar DeRozan asked reporters. "Every single one is extremely important because once next weekend starts, it's literally win or go home. No 'my bad,' or 'I'll get the next one,' so these four games are critical on us playing extremely hard and understanding we want our confidence to be at an all-time high going into next week." The Pacers can do no worse than fifth place in the East but could get as high as third. They routed Golden State 126-106 on Thursday for their sixth win in the last seven games and sit 1 1/2 games behind Philadelphia and two in back of Cleveland.

TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, FS Indiana, Sportsnet One (Toronto)

ABOUT THE PACERS (47-32): Bojan Bogdanovic led the way in Thursday's win with 28 points while making 11-of-13 shots - including 6-of-7 from 3-point distance - and Victor Oladipo added 21 points as Indiana completed a season series sweep of the defending champs. "I don't know if anyone else has respect for them but I do," coach Nate McMillan told reporters of his players. "Tonight, they beat a very good team and pretty much controlled the game throughout the game." Oladipo had three steals and has recorded at least one in 62 straight games, the sixth-longest streak in NBA history and one game shy of a run accomplished by Gary Payton in 1996.

ABOUT THE RAPTORS (56-22): DeRozan scored 16 points to lead a balanced attack in a 96-78 win over the Celtics on Wednesday as Toronto snapped its first two-game losing streak since mid-January. "We didn't score the way we needed to but we played defense the way we needed to," guard Kyle Lowry told reporters as his team improved to 32-7 at home. DeRozan made 3-of-4 3-pointers after going 1-of-18 over his previous six contests.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Bogdanovic is 3-of-21 from the field over his last two games against the Raptors.

2. The Pacers play each of their final two games of the regular season against Charlotte on Sunday and Tuesday.

3. Toronto has won eight straight meetings at home.

PREDICTION: Raptors 111, Pacers 107