Hill pushes Pacers up hill in OT win over Blazers

The Pacers defeated the Portland Trail Blazers Friday night 118-113 in overtime. The Pacers are now 39-10, including 24-2 at home and 3-0 in overtime this year, while the Blazers are 35-15.
The Big Plays
There were several of them in this game. First, there was George Hill's 3-pointer to tie the game in regulation with 8.3 seconds left after Roy Hibbert got an offensive rebound and passed the ball back out to him. Then there was the overtime where Hill put the Pacers ahead for good with a driving layup to make it 109-108 with 2:25 to go. Then with the Pacers still up by one, Blazers forward LaMarcus Aldridge ran down a defensive rebound in the corner. While falling out of bounds Aldridge tried to get the ball to teammate Robin Lopez. But the pass was a little low and the Pacers' David West picked it off and dunked it to the give Pacers a 111-108 lead with 1:32 to go.
The Ups

George Hill had his best offensive game of the
year Friday with 37 points in a win over Portland.

1) On a night where the Pacers needed George Hill to be an offensive force, he had what was the best offensive game of his career. He finished with 37 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. Hill has been anything but aggressive on the offensive for big chunks of this season, so it was a bit of a surprise to see him go at the basket and take shots so often in this one. He, or the Pacers coaches, recognized that Blazers all-star point guard Damian Lillard couldn't guard him, so Hill just kept going in the second half until somebody stopped him, but no one ever did. The most points Hill had scored in the any of the last 19 games was 17. And Hill had topped the 20-point mark just three times this season with a high of 26 before Friday.
2) David West had played well of late, scoring in double figures in eight of his last nine games, including two 22-point games. He might have saved what was his best game of the year for Friday night though, hitting 13 of 16 shots from the floor for 30 points, to go with 10 rebounds. It was West's first 30-point game of the season and all of the shots he took and in the fourth quarter and overtime were big ones.
3) Back in early January the Pacers had to make a decision on whether to keep Rasual Butler, or release him before the date when contracts are guaranteed for the rest of the season. Thankfully, they did keep him and thankfully Butler was ready to go on a night the team needed him. That's because Lance Stephenson was out due to a back injury suffered in Wednesday's win over Atlanta. That forced Danny Granger into a starting role, and then pushed Butler into some key minutes off the bench. Butler responded by hitting 3 of 4 shots from the floor, including both of his 3-point attempts, for 10 points. It's safe to say the Pacers don't win without Butler's contributions in this one. It was a good example of what a true professional does when he's called on.
The Downs
1) It was kind of amazing that the Pacers won this game when you consider that their all-stars, Paul George and Roy Hibbert combined to shoot 7 of 31 from the floor. That's a lot of iron there. Hibbert just didn't seem like he was interested in taking the ball at the basket in this one, and George, well, I don't have a big problem with him shooting a lot because the Pacers need him to be a major player on offense. But whatever he is doing on his shot, whether he's hurrying some of them, or a little off balance, or maybe trying to do a little too much before he puts one up, he and the coaching staff need to figure that out. While it was obviously good to see Hill and West have big games in this win, the Pacers still need George to be their go-to guy more often than not.
2) It's not often that a player makes the Ups and Downs in the same game, but that was certainly the case for Hill in this one. While he was brilliant offensively, he couldn't slow Lillard down on the defensive end. And then when the Pacers put George on Lillard and put Hill on Wesley Matthews in the fourth quarter, the Blazers started going to Matthews who was quite effective with 13 points in the quarter.
Afterthoughts
I thought this may well be one of the best games of the year and it certainly turned out that way. I didn't think the Pacers would be without Stephenson though, so that made this a fairly impressive win. It was a good test of character for the Pacers to beat a good team without a top player like Stephenson. It was also good to see them stay with this game and get it to overtime after trailing for much of the time. I also liked that the offensive philosophy in this game seemed to be to take the ball at Lillard and Aldridge, the Blazers top two players, to force them to play defense, resulting in big games for Hill and West and making Lillard and Aldridge play while in foul trouble late in the fourth quarter and overtime.
Next Up
The Pacers play at Orlando in a 6 p.m. game Sunday. The Pacers played the Magic on Monday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse and pulled away in the fourth quarter to win 98-79. The Magic have been led by guard Arron Afflalo at 20 points per game, former Indiana University star Victor Oladipo and forward Tobias Harris at each at 14 points per game, point guard Jameer Nelson at 13 points, center Nic Vucevic at 13 points and almost 11 rebounds and Glen Davis at 12 points per game. After going just 3-14 in January, the Magic are 15-37 after a 2-3 start in February, including a 103-102 win over Oklahoma City Friday night. And if the Pacers win, it will give them their fourth winning streak of five games or more this year, which is pretty impressive in itself.