Once again, the Pacers should thank the Heat for experience gained in a stinging Eastern Conference Finals loss last season.
When Paul George stepped to the line for three free throws with the Pacers down by three and just 5.2 seconds remaining in regulation against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden Wednesday, he had a flashback.
“Took me back to Miami when I got fouled and I had to knock three free throws down to tie the game up,” George said. “It put me in the comfort zone.”
As he did against Miami, he did against the Knicks: 3-for-3. This time there was overtime, unlike Miami. And which playoff game was that?
“Game 1. Where I took Roy Hibbert out, LeBron [James] drove, we lost,” coach Frank Vogel said with a smile of the painful defeat.
George finished with a season-high 35 points Wednesday, dominating overtime as the Pacers emerged with a 103-96 victory to move to 10-1. Thanks, Miami.
The pain of that Game 7 Conference Finals defeat to the Heat seared through every member of the Pacers. But for George, that hurt became an unparalleled motivator.
“It fueled him, it motivated him,” said Vogel, who spotted a difference in the 6-foot-9 George the first day of training camp.
“He just carries himself with a different confidence level than he did last year,” Vogel said. “Last year, he came into camp as the fifth option, hoping to get some more shots, some more touches, hoping to be more assertive. This year, he comes in and, ‘I want to be the leading scorer, the guy who carries an offensive load for this team.’”
Done.
George is the leading scorer (24.4 points per game) on the league’s best defensive team (87.2 points per game, .395 field goal percentage). George has grown, progressed matured every season — he is the reigning Most Improved Player — and seems to have taken the next step. He flat out says he has.
“I’m completely better than the player I was last season. I might win [Most Improved] again,” said George, who has worked tirelessly at every aspect of his game.
And it’s not just to warrant the five-year, $82 million extension he signed. He wants the championship trophy Miami lifted one series after dispatching Indiana.
“I looked at everything and knew I had to get better, I knew I had to be better consistently,” George said of the offseason. “I knew I had to work on conditioning and just being a leader. I had to go into the summer addressing areas I needed to get better at — mostly that was being able to get my own shot at any time on the floor.”
George not only gets his own shot, but he gets others involved, too. A terrific defender — he was second team All-Defense last season — George is the center of the Pacers’ offensive spoke with more and more being run through him.
“There’s nothing that young man can’t do,” Knicks coach Mike Woodson said,
But George is quick to share the praise.
“We’ve got so many guys here who can all get shots and create offense for one another,” George said.
All that leadership, which is legit, pours through on both ends.
“You look at just his progression,” teammate David West said. “He’s dedicated to being a defender. He’s a guy who’s looking to guard first. That defense really fuels him on both ends of the floor.
“Offensively, he’s just taken on that aggression, that level of confidence where he feels like he can get us good shots and make plays for us every single time he has the basketball,” West said.
George has reached that rarified air where he is universally recognized as one of the game’s best.
“He’s just one of the most complete players in the game right now as a fourth-year player,” Vogel said. “His offense continues to impress me, not just by knocking down shots but continuing to make the right basketball play on a consistent basis.
“Defensively, he’s one of the best in the game.”
George just shrugged at Vogel’s praise.
“It makes me feel great,” George said. “I’m just going to go out and put it on the line for him.
“My teammates and my coaches, they gave me that confidence. I know what player I can be. I know I can be an elite level, a top player. It’s just me believing in myself.”