Pacers Notebook: George, Green fizzle on All-Star Saturday

admin February 17, 2013 0

By CHRIS GOFF
ISL beat writer

The city of Houston is famous for its connections to space flight.

Representing the Indiana Pacers at the Toyota Center on All-Star Saturday, neither Paul George nor Gerald Green could get off the ground.

Figuratively speaking, at least.

Green, the Pacers’ struggling 26-year-old backup forward, made a memorable slam in the first round before failing to complete his next attempt in the dunk contest, while George, Indiana’s 22-year-old first-time All-Star, finished last in the 3-Point Shootout.

While both suffered disappointments, Green at least left with some consolation that he performed one of the better dunks of the at-times tedious competition, which was won by Toronto rookie Terrence Ross.

A returning champ, Green’s acrobatic first dunk was one of the highlights of the night. Teammate Lance Stephenson lobbed an alley-oop off the left side of the backboard, which Green caught floating sideways in midair with both hands, cupped below his waist, then threw down in reverse. Judges rewarded him with a perfect 50 score.

In the second round, Green saw the clock run out while trying over and over to dunk the ball twice in one motion, doing so by slamming it through the net-less rim (he cut if off beforehand) with his right hand, catching it with the left and then stuffing it through again with the left while letting his right hand release its grasp of the rim. Green never could pull it off and was eliminated from the contest he won back in 2007.

George, the third-year pro who blossomed into an elite wing this season, made just 9 of 24 shots and fell seven points shy of the other five contestants in a lackluster first-round performance. In the first rack, George missed on all five balls, including an airball and a line-drive that barely grazed the side of the rim.

George has become one of the Pacers’ best outside shooters, but the small forward only makes 29.5 percent of his 3-point attempts on the road, compared to his 46.5 percent success rate at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

George was eliminated from the competition after posting a score of 10; everyone else had at least 17. Even worse for George, the buzzer sounded before he could get his 25th shot off. Cleveland’s Kyrie Irving defeated San Antonio’s Matt Bonner in the final round.

George’s stroke looked fine, but unguarded, and having to turn to collect each ball, he didn’t have his usual touch and never got in rhythm.

At least for George, his weekend isn’t over. He gets a crack at Sunday night’s showcase.

Meanwhile, Green can’t blame the judges. Above all else, the object of a dunk contest is to successfully dunk the ball. And Green made the spectacular the enemy of the very good. Green also could have settled for a less emphatic jam once he saw the double-dunk was a disaster. Nonetheless, he just kept going, botching try after try, and received an extraordinarily generous score of 32, even though it still wasn’t enough to keep him around.

Overall, this night will be remembered by Pacers fans as a letdown. Green continued a forgettable year, while George missed an opportunity to add yet another memory to his memorable season.