Pacers fall in Portland, but George escalates game even more

The Pacers suffered their second loss of the season 106-102 in a hard fought game at Portland. The Pacers are now 16-2 and the Blazers are 15-3.
The Big Picture
Sure, it's a tough loss to take for the Pacers, but when you play the team with the best record in the West on the road and take them down to the wire, then you do know that you are playing at a high level. The Blazers got an advantage late in the third quarter and early in the fourth with an 18-6 run. Late in the game, the Blazers used their offensive skill to keep the lead with the combination of point guard Damian Lillard and power forward LaMarcus Aldridge doing most of the damage. It was a good effort by the visitors, just not the winning one they expected.
The Ups

Paul George led the Pacers again
by scoring 43 points Monday night.

1) Well, we can't do this without mentioning Paul George again. He scored 43 points and made four huge 3-pointers down the stretch, one that looked near impossible to make when he went up for the shot. One major part of his development has been the confidence he has to not only take, but to make big shots. And while sure, that's a bit easier to do at home, George has done it the past two nights against good teams on the road. I think it's safe to say that George's play is not some passing fad, but that he has truly arrived. Yes, it would have been nice to see him do it a win, but he did do this in a game where his team needed to and even though it was a loss, let the MVP talk continue.
2) Here's how you know Roy Hibbert has matured as a player. He had a pretty poor first half as I'm sure he would even say, hitting just two of seven shots with two rebounds and two turnovers. But Hibbert came out and kept playing in the second half and turned in what was a very respectable game with 16 points and 14 rebounds, including hitting four of six shots in the second half. All players have bad stretches every now and then. The good players learn to make those stretches shorter.
3) Yes, I'm glad LaMarcus Aldridge is in the Western Conference as we only have to see him twice during the regular season. Aldridge is an outstanding power forward. He can play inside or out on offense and he can play a little finesse or a little physical. He came in averaging nearly 24 points and over 12 rebounds and finished with 28 and 10 Monday night. But he's not just a guy who gets his numbers, he knows what he's doing out there. The only criticism I can see of his game is he falls in love with his outside shot maybe a little too much, but he hits it with regularity, too, so you know, that's being a bit picky.
The Downs
1) The Pacers may now be at the point where they just don't know what kind of production they are going to get out of Lance Stephenson on a nightly basis. I'm not saying it's because of lack of effort, but teams have had a chance to scout him and know his tendencies, where he likes get to before making a pass, and just how he likes to make his passes. Also, he's been in a big time shooting slump and the other teams know that too. They are pretty much daring him to shoot and he is not making them pay. He's got to get his shooting confidence back like he had in the early part of the season to earn respect from the defense and to make him a more effective overall player. He needs to just keep working on his shooting and take a lesson from Hibbert and shake off the bad stretch here and there and just keep playing.
2) The Pacers like to fashion themselves as a smash mouth team, but the pace in this case belonged to the Blazers late in the third and throughout most of the fourth quarter. It turned into a bit of a quicker scramble game at times and that played to the Blazers favor. The Pacers can play a little fast at times, but against a good offensive team like the Blazers, they may have been better off to walk the ball up and run their set offense and keep the tempo slower.
Afterthoughts
So, the Pacers lost another game and the the world did not end. The best thing about this team is that there are no moral victories. They will not be happy with playing well, but not winning. The Blazers proved too, that they are a legitimate contender in the West and that their record is no fluke. And while the Heat, Spurs, Thunder and Clippers will have something to say about this before it's all done, it's not unfathomable to think that we could see a Blazers-Pacers rematch in mid-to-late June.
Next up
The Pacers play the third game of this trip in a 9 p.m. game at Utah Wednesday night. They will face former Butler star Gordon Heyward, who you might remember, was the ninth pick in the draft, going right before Paul George. And while we like to see Heyward do well from afar (he scored 29 points Monday night), the Pacers are glad to have Paul George. The Jazz are in the running to get one of the top picks in what is expected to be one of the deepest drafts in years in 2014 as they have a 4-15 record, but have won two straight. They also have what could be a top rookie this year in Trey Burke, but he is off to a slow start. This is the one game on the trip the Pacers pretty much have to win, because the rest of them and then coming home to play Miami next Tuesday, won't be easy.