The Indiana Pacers sure could have used Paul George to give them a boost today against the Boston Celtics.
No excuses though. The final score of 93-89 was much closer than what the Pacers deserved. They got down early to a team on the second night of a back-to-back and never recovered. They were outhustled on the rebounds (47-42). They were careless with the ball (14 turnovers, many uncontested). They played selfishly (only 16 assists), playing to one-up their man as opposed to team basketball. Frank Vogel got flat-out outcoached by Brad Stevens, who exploited mismatches at every opportunity, gave the Celtics open looks all night, and made the Pacer offense seem stagnant and predictable.
George Hill had a season high 30 points, but he was really the only player on the team who had it going. CJ Miles had 13 but made a lot of bad decisions offensively, while Rodney Stuckey had an off game at both ends of the floor, giving up four turnovers (that turned into transition points) and only scoring 12. Solomon Hill was 0-5 with zero points and Roy Hibbert only had 5 points on 6 shots.
Disappointing effort considering the Pacers had a perfect chance to pull away in the playoff race. Instead, they stand just half a game ahead of Charlotte and a game ahead of Miami and Boston with the schedule about to get a lot tougher.
Perhaps this was the wake-up call the team needed? Or maybe it’ll help Paul George stop worrying about messing up the team chemistry.
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