Former All-Star forward Paul George starred in both games for Indiana and is having a breakout start to his year. For now, though, Vogel’s accommodation of George’s defensive concerns suggests that Indiana’s amenable to taking a flexible and fluid approach to the fundamental shift in its game plan, which should go a long way toward alleviating George’s fear of being a square peg determinedly hammered into a round hole.
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Ramon Sessions had a double-double of 11 points and 10 assists in the Washington Wizards’ 129-95 thrashing of the Philadelphia 76ers.
“That’s a great lineup, and we were blowing the Pacers off the floor”, Johnson said after the game. “But we’ve changed up with our power forwards so many times that you could see everybody hesitating (against Indiana), trying to think, ‘What am I supposed to do now on this one?’ We were just way behind the play”.
They were just a game behind the Nets for the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference last season.
The position burdened with making the most snap decisions among the newly incorporated principles is power forward, Van Gundy said. He fouled a lot, he missed defensive assignments, turned the ball over. Players such as Ilyasova are the reason the Pacers remain committed to playing with a smaller lineup. George has the ability to get whatever wants against Frye offensively, but most importantly, there is nothing in Frye’s game that George can’t stop defensively. I’ve always been a player – throughout my career, even in college and high school – I never force anything. If Mahinmi isn’t good to go tonight, Jordan Hill will probably get the starting opportunity as he did in the team’s second preseason game.
Sure, George was not convinced he should be a power forward after Saturday’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans, which he voiced rather loudly. “We opened the third quarter and, granted, they didn’t have George Hill but they had the rest of their guys out there and that was our best run of the game”. He’s got several things Van Gundy likes – shooting ability, size and length for his position and a defensive bent, above all else. We had Solomon (Hill) on the fours and C.J.
Caldwell says he doesn’t want the Lions to be distracted by more discussion of Calvin Johnson’s fumble on Detroit’s final possession in a loss to Seattle. And during the first game of his National Basketball Association career, the Detroit Pistons rookie showed that reality extends to the court as much as it does his mental and physical maturity.
Johnson was 8 for 17 from the field, hit three 3-pointers and have four assists. Fair a significant increase in minutes from his original amount of playing time.
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But, with George back, healthy and hungry, the odds are in their favor. He finished the first quarter 7-of-8 from the floor and went 2-of-2 from the free-throw line. George scored 20 of these points in the opening quarter to help set the tone early for the Pacers’ offense.
