Pacers, George are all wet in Portland

PORTLAND — The jump shots and open looks were no different inside the Moda Center from what they’ve been throughout the season. On Thursday night, the Indiana Pacers played just as freely as they had through a six-game winning streak and Paul George’s light still glowed green even after a long night of travel and disrupted sleep.

So much remained the same for the Pacers’ small ball game. But against the Portland Trail Blazers, some things needed to be tweaked. Portland snapped the Pacers' streak, 123-111.

The Pacers (12-6) had previously played three back-to-back games but Thursday marked their maiden voyage into consecutive road matchups. Late in the second half, when the Blazers were flooding the court with 3s, the Pacers gathered for a timeout. In the huddle, Monta Ellis offered reasonable advice, C.J. Miles said. Ellis simply reminded his teammates that back-to-backs can affect their pace and style of play, so they needed to find other ways to win.

“The legs are not going to be the same on some of those longer jump shots,” said Miles, who led the Pacers with 27 points. “So we’ve got to figure out ways to get ourselves little bit easier shots. That comes with the territory of learning how to play this system better and learning how to do things. Even though these are shots we’ve been making, they start hitting the front rim a little. We’ve got to figure out some ways to get going.”

• BOX SCORE: Blazers 123, Pacers 111

Though Miles connected on his long shots, collecting 8 of the Pacers’ 13 3-pointers, the team made just 43.2 percent overall. Also, Paul George returned to mere mortal status.

George, the Eastern Conference Player of the Month for November, missed 13-of-17 attempts including all nine from the 3-point arc. Over the previous four games, George has performed as a 3-point specialist (56.8 percent) but after playing a season-high 40 minutes against the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday, the same shot selections fell flat. His rhythmic step-backs and pull-up jumpers around screens looked rushed and out of sync.

“Coming in, I felt a little sluggish,” George said. “It’s just rough coming in late and trying to get your sleeping schedule right. That’s not an excuse. I’ve got to do better.”

Early on, without relying on George, Indiana opened the game with a 10-0 lead. Carrying the scoring load through the first quarter, George Hill (18 points) used his size advantage in the post over Portland point guard Damian Lillard while Miles hit three attempts from beyond the arc and made four shots overall. Also Rodney Stuckey (17 points) fulfilled his role as the second unit spark plug. Early in the third quarter he replaced Ellis, who left the game after taking a knee to the back.

Even without Ellis, the Pacers had enough offensive depth to win in Portland – something they have not done since Nov. 28, 2008 – but lacked the discipline on the other end.

The Blazers pulled down as many offensive rebounds as the Pacers (15) but often, those second chances led to more looks from beyond the arc. After the 10-minute mark of the fourth quarter, Blazers guard C.J. McCollum missed a shot from 24 feet but gathered the long rebound, tried again and succeeded. The same happened later in the quarter when Al-Farouq Aminu’s offensive rebound led to an Allen Crabbe 3-pointer.

“They were a step quicker to everything tonight,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said.

As a team, the Blazers made 18-of-36 from downtown. This should not have been a surprise, considering Portland attempted 40 3-pointers during a Monday night loss against the Dallas Mavericks. Still, the Pacers were caught defenseless.

“You see guys like Damian and C.J. (McCollum) catch fire, it kind of just flows across the whole team and they’ve got other guys that feel they’ve got the confidence as well,” George said in referring to bigs like Aminu and Meyers Leonard, who combined to attempt 11 3-pointers. “They’re capable but (they) weren’t on the radar as laser shooters.”

Follow Star reporter Candace Buckner on Twitter: @CandaceDBuckner.

Pacers at Jazz, 9 p.m. Saturday, FSI