TORONTO – The Toronto Raptors were seeking playoff redemption. But as the clock ticked down on another post-season defeat, it only conjured memories of past disappointments.

But in the moments after dropping Game 1 of their opening-round playoff series against the Indiana Pacers 100-90 on Saturday, the Raptors said they’re not panicking.

“It’s a long series,” coach Dwane Casey said. “I know the percentages and numbers, all that bull crap, but it’s a long series and I know our team. Today we didn’t play to our identity and I know we’ll come back and play more to our identity.”

All-stars Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, who’d been so solid all season, struggled mightily, with DeRozan scoring just 14 points, and Lowry adding 11. Cory Joseph had 19 points off the bench to top Toronto, while Jonas Valanciunas had 12 points and a game-high 19 rebounds before fouling out.

The Raptors, who’ve never won a Game 1 of a first-round playoff series in eight appearances, had been waiting a very long year to rewrite their playoff story after a humiliating four-game sweep by the Washington Wizards last spring.

And, on paper at least, Toronto is the undisputed series favourite after winning a franchise-record 56 games in the regular-season and cementing a first-ever No. 2 seed in the East. They were 3-1 against the Pacers in the regular season.

But the afternoon couldn’t have gone more wrong for the Raptors, who shot a woeful 38 per cent, committed 20 turnovers for 25 Pacers points, and missed 12 free throws.

“I think we just honestly missed some shots, and we turned the ball over too much. Now it’s a series of adjustments,” Lowry said. “We’re good, man. It’s one game. This is not last year, we’re very positive, we’re very confident, we’ve just got to go out there and do what we know how to do.”

Lowry and DeRozan shot a combined 8-for-32 as part of a woeful offensive effort that coach Dwane Casey said was the most tentative he’d seen all season.

But they say there’s no comparing this team to the version that was swept last season.

“That’s different, man,” DeRozan said. “Different team, different moments. We’re not panicking, we understand we just played bad. We played terrible at home and we understand that now we have to go on the road and get one.

“We play extremely well on the road, we’ve just got to take care of home Monday. We didn’t tell ourselves we were going to go out here and go 4-and-0. It’s not going to be that easy, we understand that it was going to be a challenge.”

The Raptors never led by more than eight points and headed into the fourth quarter trailing by three. They pulled even a couple of times in the fourth, but George’s pull-up jumper with 2:36 to play was the punctuation mark on a 6-1 Pacers run that put the visitors up by eight points.

Indiana just twisted the knife from that point on, and a three by Monta Ellis with just under two minutes to play gave the visitors a 13-point lead. The Raptors trudged off the court at the final buzzer to a smattering of boos from the crowd.

But veteran Luis Scola echoed his teammates’ sentiments: the Raptors have bounced back from losses all season, and their consistency has them one of the top teams in the league.

“It’s going to be hard for them to beat us three times, let alone four. That didn’t really change today,” Scola said. “We’ve got to shake it off, keep our minds right, and play the right way the next game and try to get one win. And then we’ll work from there.”

The capacity Air Canada Centre crowd of 19,800 was one of the bright spots on the day, painting a camo backdrop of red, white, black and grey T-shirts from pre-game giveaways. Outside, a few thousand fans watched the game on the giant screen in a sun-soaked Maple Leaf Square.

Valanciunas got off to a solid start, scoring eight points and grabbing a whopping nine boards in a first quarter that saw the Raptors take a seven-point lead. Toronto went into the second quarter up 24-19.

Joseph, who won an NBA title with San Antonio, showed his playoff poise with eight points in the second quarter. And despite a shaky first half for Lowry and DeRozan — they were a combined 4-for-17 — the Raptors held a narrow 45-43 lead at halftime.

George had 16 points in the third to lift Indiana to its first lead of the game and the Pacers took a 70-67 advantage into the fourth.

Game 2 is Monday night. The series moves to Indianapolis for Game 3 on Thursday and Game 4 on Saturday.