Doyel: Paul George's hero act falls a quarter short

TORONTO – The game slowed down for Paul George, plays unfolding in his mind before they unfolded on the floor. Believe him when he said afterward that the first three quarters of Game 5 didn’t just look easy – it was easy.

Then it got hard. And then it got crazy.

George went to the bench for his customary rest after the third quarter, and when he returned with 8½ minutes left the game was no longer easy. The crowd was no longer groaning every time he shot, and rapper Drake was no longer minding his business in the front row. Now Drake was standing right next to Paul George and taunting him, oozing a soft stream of trash as George was trying to throw the ball inbounds.

When George came back into the game after 3½ minutes later, a 13-point lead had been whittled to seven. Two minutes later the lead was gone. Then, the game.

The Pacers completely collapsed in the fourth quarter Tuesday night, losing 102-99 after being outscored 25-9 in the final 12 minutes. With less than one minute to play, the Pacers had scored four points in the fourth quarter.

After scoring 22 points in the first half and then getting hotter, pouring in 15 points in the third as the Pacers built a 90-75 lead, George scored two in the fourth. He had two turnovers in the period. He had the ball in his hands in the final seconds, the Pacers needing a 3-pointer to force overtime, but he lost his balance and then passed to Solomon Hill – a little bit late.

Fourth-quarter collapse costs Pacers in Game 5 loss

Hill, who made his first three 3-pointers in Game 5, made his fourth as well. But he made it a split-second too late. Game over. Series over? We’ll find out Friday night. Trailing 3-2, can they recover by Game 6 and force a Game 7?

That was the question I asked Pacers rookie Myles Turner (14 points, eight rebounds, three blocks), and it brought him out of the haze he was in. He was sitting in front of his locker with ice packs on both knees, thumbing through his text messages, not noticing that the ice pack on his right knee was leaking. The melt was dripping down his leg and onto the floor, where his taped foot was resting in a puddle of ice-cold water.

That’s how I found Turner when I asked him if this loss will hurt the team on Friday for Game 6.

“Hell no,” Turner said, sitting upright and noticing, finally, his foot in the water. He looked down in disgust, moved out of the puddle, and kept talking.

“This is all fire,” he said. “We’ll be good next game, I promise you that. Paul in particular is going to come out and have a great game. He’ll have that fire.”

George had that fire – George was on fire – for three quarters Tuesday. He had 37 points through three quarters, and he needed just 16 shots to get them. He had seven rebounds, six assists and two steals. He was playing the game of his life, and he had the seventh-seeded Pacers on the precipice of victory in Game 5, on the road, against the second-seeded Raptors.

Since 1999, only one No. 7 seed has beaten a No. 2 seed in a best-of-seven NBA playoff series. The No. 2 seeds have won the other 33 series – they’re 33-1 in the first round – but the Pacers were close, so close, to being in control. Paul George had them there.

And then he went to the bench, and some Pacers fans – OK, a lot of Pacers fans – were screaming on social media Tuesday night as the fourth quarter began with the Pacers ahead 90-77 but the Raptors rallying and George resting. One minute passed, and the lead was down to 11. Then it was nine, then seven. George came in with 8:36 left, he and George Hill, but the spell had been broken – the Pacers’ spell on the Raptors, and Paul George’s spell on himself.

Now he was fumbling the ball away, leading to Toronto dunks at the other end. He was missing shots. He finished with 39 points, eight rebounds, eight assists and two steals, and somehow his game was incomplete. Know how many players in the last 32 years have put up 39-8-8-2 in a playoff game? Just eight: Jordan. Bird. Kobe. Barkley. Drexler. LeBron. McGrady. Rondo. Paul George became No. 9 on Tuesday night, but here’s what he didn’t do:

He didn’t shoot the ball in the final seconds.

It was the right basketball play, if the wrong result. He was double-teamed and off balance. Solomon Hill, 3-for-3 from long range, was alone in the corner.

“It was a great play,” Vogel said. “Just a great play. One frame shy of being a tie game and going to overtime.”

Pacers' collapse leaves them on verge of elimination

Vogel’s decision to rest George early in the fourth quarter was questioned Tuesday night and will be for the foreseeable future, but that too was the right basketball play. As it was, George played 41 minutes and 5 seconds. Only five times in 81 regular-season games this year did he play more, and the Pacers lost all five.

I’d asked Vogel before the game how tempted he was to give his starters major minutes in what could be the final week of the season, and he told me: “It’s important they’re fresh in the fourth quarter. If you want to make shots at crunch time, if you’ve played 46 minutes, maybe you’re not going to be as fresh.”

It’s not the shots George didn’t make that we’ll remember from Tuesday. It’s the one he didn’t take, with 2.7 seconds left, when he passed it to Solomon Hill.

And so I asked the Pacers’ superstar after the game: Double-teamed as you were, were you tempted to shoot it anyway?

“It’s very tempting,” Paul George told me. “That’s the shot you want. But at the same time, I (saw) the open man. And you know, it wasn’t on me to make the hero shot.”

The Pacers needed a hero Tuesday night. For three quarters, they sure had one.

Find Star columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at@GreggDoyelStar or atwww.facebook.com/gregg.doyel