Gregg Doyel

gregg.doyel@indystar.com

INDIANAPOLIS — Paul George could do this every night. That’s what he told us last year during the playoffs against Toronto, when he was the best player on the court for seven consecutive games. He was so good in that series, he drew Kobe Bryant comparisons as the seventh-seeded Indiana Pacers pushed the second-seeded Raptors to the brink. Paul George has always been a special player, but those playoffs were different. He was superstar good. MVP good.

Paul George was that good again Monday night in the Pacers' 107-105 victory against the Washington Wizards.

Problem is, Paul George has not been able to do this every night. He hasn’t come close.

Looking for a reason why the Pacers are again a borderline playoff team, again mediocre, their victory Monday pushing their record to a feeble 15-14? There’s your biggest reason: Paul George has been special, for sure — just not consistently special enough.

You’re not hearing that, of course. Not sure why. Maybe everyone around here is scared of pushing Paul George away. He can leave after next season, and despite a new collective bargaining agreement that would allow the Pacers to offer him tens of millions more than any other team, George remains noncommittal. Higher-ups in the franchise are concerned. Pacers fans are terrified. Maybe that’s why folks around here can’t decide who to blame more for the Pacers inability to climb the Eastern Conference ladder: coach Nate McMillan or president Larry Bird.

And to be clear, there are multiple factors at play when it comes to the Pacers being a borderline .500. Team defense has suffered with the offseason losses of center Ian Mahinmi and guard George Hill. Monta Ellis is back — yay? — but he turned ancient overnight. The two biggest offseason acquisitions — and Monday night heroes — Jeff Teague (23 points, 10 assists) and Thaddeus Young (game-winning shot in the final second) have been good, though not as good as hoped.

But, Paul George.

This is George’s team, just as he wants it, and this team will go only as far as he takes it. On Monday night, he took the Pacers from an early 12-1 deficit against the Wizards to victory by scoring nine points in the final 4½ minutes, channeling his Toronto performance — channeling his MVP capabilities — with a flurry of spinning, between-the-legs dribbling, stepping-back jumpers. It was awesome, is what it was.

It looked like last season in those playoffs against Toronto. George was spectacularly good that series, drawing a Bryant comparison afterward from Raptors coach Dwane Casey. For the series, George averaged 27.3 points, 7.6 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 2.0 steals and 0.7 blocked shots. Over the course of a full season, every single one of those numbers would be a career high for George.

And before this season began, he said he could do it for a full season.

“Yeah,” he said in September, when I asked him if it was reasonable to expect him to play a full season as well as he played in the playoffs. “Yeah, it is.”

McMillan agreed.

“No,” McMillan said, when I asked him if it was unfair to expect that much from George for a full season.

So here we are. One-third of the way through a full season. And Paul George isn’t as good as he was in the playoffs. He isn’t close. Hell, he isn’t as good this season as he was last season, and last season was his first full year after the broken leg of 2014.

Remember those playoff stats: 27.3 ppg, 7.6 rpg, 4.5 apg.

George this season: 21.8 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 3.1 apg.

George last season: 23.0 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 4.1 apg.

To recap, and forgive me — I guess — for daring to point out the imperfection of Paul George, but even with his monster game Monday (27 points, nine rebounds, two assists), he hasn't been as consistently good as he was in the 2016 playoffs, or the 2015-16 regular season.

And you see the results. The Pacers entered Monday tied with the Chicago Bulls for the seventh (and eighth) playoff spots in the East.

Now, this is interesting. Before the game Monday, McMillan was asked if George “is giving you everything you need.”

Listen to McMillan’s answer, or nonanswer, and show me where he says: Yes:

“I thought (Paul) was good our last game,” McMillan said, referring to George’s 26-point performance in a 105-90 win at Detroit on Saturday. “When he’s playing well at both ends of the floor, we’re playing well.”

In other words: No, he’s not giving the Pacers everything they need. The Pacers need Paul George to continue his career ascension, to become not just a third-team All-NBA performer that he's looking like again, but an MVP candidate. They need him to play as he did in the playoffs last season, when he was unstoppable on offense and when he did this to Raptors star DeMar DeRozan on defense: After averaging 23.5 ppg last season — and before averaging 28.4 this season — DeRozan managed just 17.9 ppg in seven playoff games against George.

Here are some more numbers entering Monday that suggest the Pacers will be awesome — are awesome — only when George is awesome:

Paul George, when the Pacers win this season: 23.2 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 3.4 apg. He shoots 48.4 percent from the floor, 41.4 percent on 3-pointers in victory.

Paul George, when the Pacers lose this season: 20.2 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 2.9 apg. He shoots 40.9 percent from the floor, 37.1 percent on 3-pointers in defeat.

Meanwhile, talk radio is debating Monta Ellis or Glenn Robinson III as the starting two-guard. Somehow, the city’s best basketball player since Reggie Miller is floating under the radar. Somehow, we’re not seeing what is very clearly happening:

The Pacers’ problem — and the Pacers’ solution — is Paul George.

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter: @GreggDoyelStar or atfacebook.com/gregg.doyel.