Doyel: Paul George running off at the mouth, again

Paul George didn’t shoot well. Didn’t handle the ball well.

Didn’t handle the refereeing well, either.

George flapped his arms in disgust throughout the game and went on a tirade on live television after the Pacers beat the Nets 104-97 on Friday night, saying, “the stripes was terrible” and adding, “Hopefully the league does a better job looking at (expletive) like this.”

The expletive, gentle reader, was a word for manure.

This game, gentle reader, was sort of the same thing.

On the bright side, and this is serious, the Pacers won. This bland bit of blasé basketball was the kind of game a lesser team, a bad team, would have lost. The Pacers shot 41.6 percent from the floor and 25 percent on 3-pointers. Their star (Paul George) committed seven turnovers. One of their best supporting actors (Monta Ellis) was 1-for-8 and scored just two points in 34 minutes. The team’s other top scorers, C.J. Miles and George Hill, were a combined 7-for-23.

The Pacers were not good on Friday night. But they are good enough to win even so, and to win rather comfortably. They led 104-92 before the Nets scored the last five points. The Pacers actually trailed entering the fourth quarter, but they were clearly the superior team and showed it when it was winning time.

“I just wish it was ‘winning time’ all four quarters,” said Miles, the veteran forward, and that’s a good point. The Pacers are good enough to beat a bad team like the Nets without their A-game, but they’re not so good that they can get away with it against many others. At 7-19 this season, the Nets are worse than everybody in the NBA other than the Lakers (4-22), who are old and busted, and the 76ers (1-26), who just don’t care.

The Pacers care. Paul George cares.

Paul George needs to find another way to show it.

George already has been fined once by the league, drawing a $10,000 penalty in October for complaining about “a lot of bad calls” after the season-opening loss to the Toronto Raptors. He’ll be fined again for this televised outburst, which was a stupid thing to do if it was planned — and an immature thing to do if it wasn’t.

George is one of the best players in the NBA, emerging this season — after missing most of last year with a broken leg — as an MVP candidate if it weren’t for the Steph Curry show out West.

And George takes himself and his stature in this league seriously. After games he seeks out the other team’s star(s), and only their star(s), for a congratulatory handshake. After the Warriors beat the Pacers last week, George made a beeline for Curry before peeling off and heading for the locker room. Friday night, he sought out Brooklyn scoring leaders Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young before ignoring the rest of the Nets on his way toward the television interview soon to be heard ‘round the world.

Paul George wants respect, see. He’s part of the most popular NBA clique, and he wants to be treated as such by referees. It’s why, on a night he shot more free throws (eight) than anyone else on either team, he wanted more. And it’s why, on a night the Pacers made more free throws (23-for-26) than the Nets attempted (17-for-17), he thought the game was poorly officiated.

And the referees missed some calls against the Nets. (They missed some calls against the Pacers, too.) Pacers coach Frank Vogel launched his own expletive after a contested (fouled?) Paul George shot attempt late in the third quarter. Vogel earned a technical foul for that. He was asked afterward about the officiating and said two words Paul George needs to learn:

“No comment.”

This is a trend, see.

Late in the 2013-14 season George had a poor game (7-for-19 from the floor) and went to the foul line just twice against the Nets, and afterward he tweeted someone with the initials “AS” — Adam Silver is the NBA commissioner — when he wrote: “AS clean house on those stripes! #Terrible.”

Grow up, know what I mean? Look at the common denominator of the three games in which George has complained about the refs:

That game in 2014: 7-for-19 from the floor, four turnovers.

Another game from 2014, a playoff loss to the Heat, after which George was fined $25,000 for complaining about refs: Outscored by LeBron James 32-23, five turnovers.

Season-opener this year: 4-for-17 from the floor, three turnovers.

Friday night: 7-for-15 from the floor, seven turnovers.

See the trend?

Paul George doesn’t play well.

Paul George lashes out at referees.

He does more than that, actually, including several times Friday night when he did this: He channeled his inner Dwight Howard, refusing to go back to the defensive end after not getting a call he wanted on offense. He could play defense like everyone else, I guess, but his preference was simply to stand motionless on the offensive end, stunned that The Great Paul George didn’t get the call. Jordan got those calls, you know? LeBron gets those calls. PG should get them. Or something.

Listen, I like Paul George. You reading this, PG? Of course you are. The most media-savvy player on this team sees and hears all. He’s seeing this. So understand, PG, you are not on a sustainable course of action. You are not LeBron, not Kobe, not even Dwyane Wade. Maybe you’ll get there in a few years, with an MVP trophy or NBA title. But now? Full-fledged superstar you may be, but earn something more than third-team All-NBA before demanding to be treated like the best players in the world.

Win something. Earn the right to talk. Until then, you’re not one of the best players in the world.

Just one of the mouthiest.

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