The Pacers committed 14 first-half turnovers and fell behind by 24 points, rallied all the way back to cut the deficit to two, but faded late to fall 122-111 for their third straight defeat. All three have been by double figures.

The Pacers fell to 9-13 after winning their previous three games. After winning all six games that counted in the In-Season Tournament last year before losing to the Lakers in the finals in a game that did not count against their regular season record, they went 0-4 in NBA Cup play this year. The Raptors improved to 7-15, 1-3 in NBA Cup play.

The Pacers have lost seven straight road games. They play Brooklyn on Wednesday night on the second night of a back-to-back before playing the Bulls in Chicago on Friday night.

“The product we’re putting on the floor right now as a group is embarrassing,” All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton told reporters in Toronto in video posted on the Pacers’ YouTube account. “… Every team is playing hard right now. Every team is young and has energy. There’s no reason we shouldn’t be matching that and beyond. I just think the product that we’re putting out there on a nightly basis needs to be better because we work too hard. Too many people care. We have too much pride in it. The product has to be better. The effort has to be better.”

The Pacers currently sit in a three-way tie for eighth place in the Eastern Conference, tied with the Nets and Bulls. That gives them an opportunity to move up quickly but also an opportunity to fall behind quickly if they can’t grab road victories.

“There needs to be a reality check right now, individually and collectively,” Haliburton said. “Guys need to look at themselves in the mirror and ask themselves what they can do better. That starts with me. I have to be a better leader. I have to do everything better and harder because I’m not ready to (expletive) away a year of my career or this organization and this team’s season. … We’re 9-13 right now. We can act like the world is falling apart and that’s not the case, but there also has to be a sense of urgency. Everybody can keep saying, ‘Oh, it’s four games, we can get back to .500.’ It ain’t that easy.”

Here are five observations.

Turnovers doomed the Pacers

The Pacers recorded their first turnover Tuesday before they scored their first points. They had five turnovers in the game’s first four minutes and six in its first six. They committed nine turnovers in the first quarter that turned into 12 Raptors points.

The giveaways came in all forms. The Raptors recorded seven first-half steals with their long-armed defenders getting their hands in passing lanes and taking away dribbles, but also taking advantage of ill-advised decisions by the Pacers. Indiana also threw some passes out of bounds, but players who didn’t even have the ball in their hands gave it away with offensive fouls on illegal screens.

“Lack of force, a lack of overall force led to an absence of any kind of leverage,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle told reporters in Toronto after the game. “The physical nature of the game now, if you don’t have leverage on offense, teams are pressuring, there’s a lot of contact and turnovers happen.”

The Pacers fell behind by as many as 22 points in the first half and were down 21 with 1:21 to go. At the 8:33 mark of the third quarter, the Raptors took a 77-53 lead and they were still up 86-62 with 5:56 to go in the third.

At that point, perhaps remarkably, the Pacers found a gear that almost propelled them to what would’ve been one of their biggest comebacks in franchise history. They out-scored the Raptors 22-7 in the last 5:56 of the third quarter to cut the deficit to 93-84 heading into the fourth. They fell behind by 13 with 10:46 to go and still trailed by 10 with 8:46 left but went on an 8-0 run to make it 105-103 on a 3-point play by forward Obi Toppin with 6:36 left. Over a stretch of less than 12 minutes, they outscored the Raptors 41-19.

The Pacers got a stop on the next possession, but Haliburton missed a 3-pointer that would’ve given them the lead and Toronto’s Ochai Agbaji hit a 3 on the other end to put the Raptors back up five. The Pacers never got closer than three points the rest of the way.

The Pacers couldn’t keep the Raptors out of the lane

The Pacers gave up 66 points in the paint to Toronto when they previously met on Nov. 18 thanks in large part to the absence of center Myles Turner. However, with Turner and even Nembhard back, the Pacers weren’t much better at stopping drives to the rim.

The Raptors scored 56 points in the paint on Tuesday, making 28 of 45 attempts. All-Star swingman Scottie Barnes scored 35 points on 13 of 20 shooting with seven of his field goals coming in the lane and five right at the rim. Forward R.J. Barrett scored 29 points on 9 of 16 shooting which included seven buckets in the restricted area. Center Jakob Poeltl didn’t operate with impunity like he did on Nov. 18 when he scored 30 points with Turner out, but he scored 17 on Tuesday with all seven of his field goals coming in the lane. Those easy ones helped the Raptors shoot 54.3%.

Tyrese Haliburton finally had a good night on the road

Haliburton finally seemed to break out of his season-long shooting slump during the Pacers’ four-game homestand over Thanksgiving week, but with a 3-of-10 shooting performance against the Grizzlies in Memphis on Sunday, he was reminded that his road numbers this year have been horrendous.

Heading into Tuesday’s game he was averaging just 11.9 points per game on 31.7% shooting including 22.6% (19 of 84) from 3-point range on the road while averaging 22.7 points on 48.1% shooting including 42.9% from 3-point range (42 of 98) from 3 at home. Playing on the road has never been a major issue for Haliburton before and last year he actually averaged more points (21.1 per game to 19.3 per game) on the road and shot better from the field and 3-point range at arenas other than Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

On Tuesday, Haliburton finally returned to his typical road form with 30 points on 10 of 16 shooting including 4 of 9 from 3-point range and as 6 of 7 at the line. With the rest of the squad struggling, he scored 14 first-half points on 4 of 4 shooting, making both of his 3-pointers. He helped fuel the third quarter comeback with 12 more points on 5 of 7 shooting with two more 3-pointers, though he made just 1 of 5 field goals in the fourth.

Haliburton’s success came in large part because he was more willing than usual to attack off the bounce. He had three layups and five buckets in the paint, plus a pull-up jumper from the foul-line extended coming downhill off a ball screen. It was a goal for him to operate that way after he took just one 2-point shot against Memphis on Sunday with no shots inside of 8 feet.

“I was just trying to get downhill,” Haliburton said. “Understanding that in that Memphis game, I’m seeing something I’m probably going to see from a lot of teams moving forward with full-out denies, full-court pressure and all those things. I’m just trying to navigate the waters a little bit, figure out the right way to attack it, to be myself while also trying to help us win games. It feels good to see the ball go in, especially on the road because I’ve been struggling on the road this year. But really all that matters now is winning and as the leader of this group I don’t really care about individual anything right now.”

Obi Toppin stepped up on both ends

Forward Obi Toppin has been a producer on offense since the Pacers got him, especially in transition as a rim runner and finisher. He hasn’t always produced on defense or on the glass, averaging just 3.8 boards per game in his time with the Pacers going into Tuesdays’ game — not a great number for a 6-9, 220-pounder with a jaw-dropping vertical.

But Toppin was extremely active on the glass on Tuesday, grabbing a season-high nine rebounds including seven on the defensive end while also recording a block. That’s worth noting because one reason he doesn’t always rebound is he’s looking to leak out in transition for fast-break buckets. He also scored 13 points on 6 of 10 shooting including 2 of 4 from 3-point range and he also posted a +17 plus-minus figure and was the only player on the Pacers with a positive plus-minus.

Andrew Nembhard and Pascal Siakam struggled

Nembhard and All-Star forward Pascal Siakam have been generally reliable pillars for the Pacers in different ways but both struggled on Tuesday.

Nembhard scored 14 points in 15 minutes on Sunday in his return after 12 missed games from right knee tendinitis but he never found an offensive rhythm on Tuesday and also couldn’t stop Barnes. Nembhard scored six points on 1 of 5 shooting in just under 19 minutes. He posted four assists but also two had key turnovers and was -18 in his minutes.

Meanwhile Siakam, who has yet to fail to score in double figures since the Pacers acquired him last January, scored just 13 points on 4 of 13 shooting on Tuesday, He grabbed six rebounds and had three steals but also turned the ball over twice and posted a -22 plus-minus in just under 36 minutes.