Bulls-Pacers Preview
The Indiana Pacers are knocking down 3-pointers with ridiculous accuracy after a mediocre start, and they seem to be showing no signs of slowing down.
They'll try to stay hot from beyond the arc and avenge a loss earlier this month to the Chicago Bulls on Friday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
Indiana is shooting a league-best 41.6 percent from 3-point range, an unusually good number for a franchise that hasn't finished better than 12th in that category over the last three seasons. The Pacers (9-5) also started off in relatively average fashion, shooting 34.2 percent in their first seven games.
They've won nine of 11 this month, however.
"We're still getting used to the system, but now we're flowing," said Paul George, who is shooting 45.7 percent from 3-point range.
They've shot a blistering 52.9 percent from deep over the last four games - the franchise's best mark for a four-game stretch since Jan. 16-23, 1998 - though they were 24 of 42 in that span compared to 55 for 104 during the current run.
Indiana hit a franchise-record 19 of 26 3-pointers in Tuesday's 123-106 win at Washington, and the 73.1 3-point percentage set a league mark with a minimum 25 attempts.
George scored 40 points and hit seven 3-pointers, while C.J. Miles knocked down eight and scored 32. The duo combined for only two misses and became just the fifth teammates in NBA history to hit seven apiece.
"We've been talking about making people try and pick their poison. There's a lot of space out there when he does what he does," Miles said of George. "There's a lot of space out there when he does what he does. I just try and move in the gaps and find spaces and be aggressive when I get my chances."
Indiana lost 96-95 at Chicago on Nov. 16, shooting 9 of 21 from beyond the arc but just 39.4 percent from 2-point range. George scored 26 while Derrick Rose led Chicago with 23.
The Bulls (9-4) are limiting opponents to 33.9 percent 3-point shooting and held Portland to 27.3 percent (6 for 22) in a 93-88 road win Tuesday.
Jimmy Butler scored 22 while Rose added 17 after missing two games with a sprained left ankle. Chicago shot 38.4 percent - the third time in four games it has shot 40.7 percent or worse - but scored a season high-matching 21 points off turnovers.
"I think we played an all-right game," Rose said. "We won so that's the only thing that matters."
Rose was 7 of 20 and has struggled with his shot all season, hitting 37.3 percent from the field - the seventh-worst among players averaging at least 30 minutes.
"I felt all right," he said. "There were some plays where I had no lift on my shot as far as like driving the ball, but that's going to come the more I play and the stronger it gets."
The Bulls are closing a four-game trip before playing nine of the next 10 games at home, while the Pacers are 5-2 at home and have won five of six there in the series. George has shot just 28.3 percent in his last three home meetings with Chicago, however.