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Pacers Seeking Urgency as Games Dwindle

This is not where the Pacers intended to be with just 10 games left in the regular season. The frustration starts with the record, sure, which is now literally average at 36-36, but it goes beyond that. They are still seeking cohesion, and still fighting their casual nature.

"It's been a weird season," Jeff Teague said after the Pacers' 125-117 loss to Denver at Bankers Life Fieldhouse Friday. "Very weird."

The weirdness was summarized neatly in the box score of this game, which ended the alternating losses and wins that had gone on for 15 games. It shows the Pacers giving up 43 free throw attempts to the Nuggets and getting just 11 themselves. It shows the Pacers giving up 34 points in the first quarter on their way to a 13-point deficit and then giving up another run to start the third quarter and falling behind by 23 early in the fourth. It shows the Pacers scoring 42 points in the fourth period to get within five points with 1:47 left in the game. And, it shows the Pacers shooting better than 50 percent from the field and 54 percent from the 3-point line and still losing.

Those numbers reveal a lack of urgency to start the game, a lack of offensive execution for the first three quarters and a lack of defense throughout — but mostly a lack of urgency. The Pacers were coming off a loss in Boston on Wednesday and are still fighting for a playoff spot. Why would a team fighting for a playoff spot lack urgency?

"I'm not sure," Paul George said, wrapped in brown towels as he sat in front of his locker after emerging from the shower.

"I'm not sure. You know? I'm not sure. That's a question I can't answer."

Like Teague said, it's a "weird" season.

George led the Pacers with 27 points, and added nine rebounds, three assists and three steals in an all-around excellent performance, but one that didn't get going until the final 11 1/2 minutes, after he re-entered the game. He scored 16 points the rest of the way, hitting 4-of-5 3-pointers, the last of which completed a 25-7 run and brought his team within 113-108 with 107 seconds remaining.

But that was as good as it got for the Pacers. Denver center Nikola Jokić, who somehow managed to be a second-round draft pick, hit a 3-pointer over Myles Turner on his way to 30 points. The Pacers then failed to get the ball inbounds within the five-second limit, and Jokić hit a shot in the lane to regain a 10-point lead for the Nuggets.

To the Pacers' credit, they didn't blame the free throw disparity on the officials. That was simply a reflection of the difference in offensive execution.
The Nuggets moved without the ball and attacked the basket. The Pacers were too often stagnant, killing time beyond the 3-point line or going one-on-one.

"They were cutting hard," McMillan said. "We waited a little too late to get aggressive. You have to start the game with that aggressive play we played with in the fourth quarter. That way, the officials have to call it both ways. Whenever you are playing on your heels and the other team is the aggressors, they'll officiate it that way."

George, who has frequently complained about officiating during games, was upset with some calls during the game, but was resigned afterward.

"At this point I'm done with fighting that battle," he said. "I respect every call the officials make."

George is still struggling to walk the line between being the aggressor who takes over the offense and carries his team, or the complete player who gets teammates involved and adheres to coach Nate McMillan's commands to play the game "the right way."

"When I go off I'm looked at as the ball-stopper or the ball-hogger," he said. "I get labeled that, so within games I try to move the ball and get other guys the ball. And when that doesn't work I get labeled as the lone wolf."

McMillan had no complaints about George's play, either in the first three quarters or the fourth. He's looking for everyone to play with a greater sense of urgency. It's done it often enough to prove it is capable of that, starting with the first few minutes of the season-opener with Dallas, but hasn't made a habit of it.

"I would have liked to have seen the entire team play with (George's fourth-quarter) aggressiveness," McMillan said. "That's the aggressiveness you have to come out with. We put up a 42-point fourth quarter. How did you do that? You were getting stops and you were pushing the ball and attacking offensively. We waited until the fourth quarter to do that.

"We saw what we can do when we came with that gritty, scrappy urgency in that fourth quarter. Somehow, we have to find a way to get that right from the start, and that kind of energy and effort for 48 minutes with both units."

McMillan changed the starting lineup at halftime, replacing C.J. Miles with Monta Ellis. The idea was to get more scoring and size in the second unit, which has lost Glenn Robinson III to a sore left calf for an estimated two weeks. It's another weird thing to have to consider changing the starting lineup this late in the season, but that's the reality.

The Pacers have two more home games against teams with losing records, Philadelphia on Sunday and Minnesota on Tuesday, and then finish with five road games and three home games. Win them both, and their place in the playoffs should be secure. Lose them, and the weirdness only mounts.

How do they find the urgency to finish the season well?

"We just have to understand where we're at," George said. "That's all it comes down to. We're fighting for a spot. This is a desperate time. We don't need motivational speeches; none of that. The job we have to do is make the playoffs and win games."

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