How Paul George's playmaking gave the Pacers an edge in Game 1

The Pacers' offense at times has a penchant for getting stagnant and downright ugly. The ball stops moving, players stop moving, and the team stops scoring, undoing a lot of the work Indiana's defense does to keep this team in contention. Coming into their Eastern Conference Final series against a Heat defense that can be relentless at times, especially in aggressively defending pick-and-rolls, ball movement and players getting trapped was a legitimate concern for the Pacers.

Of course, with Game 1 out of the way, we now know that the Pacers took the opener in convincing fashion, with their offensive execution, especially, surprising many. Indiana shoot over 51 percent from the field and recorded 23 assists on 35 made field goals in their 107-96 Game 1 win, with the ball seemingly moving more than usual.

Paul George didn't lead the team in assists on Sunday - Lance Stephenson did with eight - but George was the catalyst for that Pacers ball movement from the opening tip, recording five assists in the game's first nine minutes as the Pacers burst out of the gates.

George is still working on becoming a consistent offensive force, and when a player who's not a natural playmaker faces double teams and traps, they often end up holding the ball too long, resulting in more pressure, or simply throwing the ball away in a frenzied panic. We've seen it happen to George plenty of times as he's taken on an increased ball handling role over the last few years, but the first quarter of Game 1 may have been the most comfortable and most impressive P.G. has looked as a playmaker.

In the first play below, George appears to dribble himself into trouble, with Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Shane Battier all in front of him, but he patiently waits out Bosh's hedge and Battier's leap to find a cutting David West slipping behind a Roy Hibbert screen. The pass is picture perfect:

On the next play, George again out-waits the double-team and finds Hibbert under the basket in the split second while LeBron James steps back over to West and Bosh still hasn't made it back to Hibbert:

George's first two assists came by getting the rid of the ball at the precisely perfect moment. On the next play in question in the GIF below, George does a great job of reading, anticipating and then reacting to Miami's defense.

At the beginning of the play you can see George motion to George Hill where he wants him on the perimeter. George then backs down Battier into the post, waits for the help - in this case Chalmers - off of Hill, gets to the middle of the floor and then finds a suddenly open Hill for three:

Later in the first quarter, George would split the Battier/Bosh defense on a George/Hibbert pick-and-roll, once again get to the heart of the Heat D, draw Chalmers off of Hill, and find Hill for another open three:

By this point, the Pacers were well on their way from an offensive standpoint. Sure, there was still plenty of work to be done on both ends of the court with less than a quarter gone by, but the ball movement and offensive rhythm had been set, and everything just kind of seemed to flow from there.

George finished with seven assists to go along with 24 points on 7-of-13 shooting, four rebounds and a steal, and the performance was part of his larger, under the radar playoff excellence as a whole this Spring. Indiana's inconsistency on their way to the East Final has overshadowed any positives associated with the team over the last month, but George has quietly gone about averaging 22.1 points (on a True Shooting Percentage of 58.4), 8.4 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.0 steals through 14 playoff games, giving him the second-highest Player Impact Estimate (17.0%) in the postseason behind LeBron James (21.4%), according to NBA.com.

The Pacers still need to split the next six games with the two-time defending champs to get the job done, and their consistency from game to game is anything but certain. But their also three wins away from The Finals after a Game 1 win, and George's playmaking ability is a big reason why.