George drops 40 as red-hot Pacers thrash Wizards
Paul George added another chapter to his remarkable comeback season Tuesday night, hanging 40 points on the Washington Wizards in the Indiana Pacers' 123-106 win.
From the opening tip, everything George flung up seemed to find the bottom of the net. He scored on pullups, catch-and-shoots, and cuts to the basket. He earned points from the paint, from mid-range, and beyond the arc. He made his first six 3-point attempts, and finished the game shooting 14-of-19 from the field and 7-of-8 from deep. Forty points, on 19 shots.
He added eight rebounds, four assists, and two steals for good measure as the Pacers won their third straight and improved to 9-5 on the season. The disputes about George's natural position seem like a distant memory.
So, too, does the traumatic leg injury that robbed him of all but six games last year. No one knew quite what to expect from George as he readied for his first full season since finishing ninth in MVP voting in 2013-14. Fourteen games in, he's already answered that question: George is better than ever. He's shooting the lights out, rebounding like a power forward, dishing out assists at a career-best rate, and playing as well as anyone not named Steph Curry.
Speaking of Curry, and his sweet-shooting Golden State Warriors backcourt mate Klay Thompson (the "Splash Brothers"), George made this crack after Tuesday's game, in which Pacers swingman C.J. Miles also went off.
Paul George on himself and C.J. Miles in his TV interview: “We’re the East Coast Splash Brothers. I’m kidding. Twitter, I’m kidding.”
— CBS Sports NBA (@CBSSportsNBA) November 25, 2015
Miles was just as torrid shooting the basketball, going 10-of-16 from the field and 8-of-9 from distance for 32 points. The Pacers as a team shot a preposterous 19-of-26 on threes, which has never happened before.
Pacers shot 73% from 3-point range (19-of-26), best 3-pt % for NBA team with at least 25 3s taken (via @eliassports) pic.twitter.com/1HZtBGtBHs
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) November 25, 2015
It's more than a little surprising the Pacers would be the team to set a new standard of 3-point-shooting excellence. After years of playing (and largely thriving) as a plodding, old-school outfit that almost always kept two traditional bigs on the floor, the Pacers have remade themselves in the image of the modern NBA. They're smaller, play faster, switch more on defense, and hunt more threes.
The early returns have been extremely promising.