Nate Taylor

IndyStar

MILWAUKEE – Paul George walked into the visitors’ locker room and looked for his assigned seat. Fortunate for George, his seat was immediately right of the entrance. From there, George sat down, leaned back and stretched out.

George, in that moment, appeared content, relaxed and rested. For the first time this season, George was not going to carry the Pacers’ burden.

In the regular-season finale against the Milwaukee Bucks, coach Frank Vogel gave George, Monta Ellis, George Hill and Ian Mahinmi the night off to rest in preparation of the Pacers’ first-round playoff series against the Toronto Raptors. Vogel wanted his top four starters to rest because they had played the most minutes this season. George tops the list with 2,819 minutes.

The atmosphere inside the Pacers’ locker room before the game was casual.

Ellis joked with teammates. Hill went through his usual pregame routine. Mahinmi, wearing a custom gray pattern suit, made phone calls. No one represented casual more than George. He wore a gray sweat suit, black and purple Air Jordans and had his blue Eastern Confernce All-Star ball cap on backward.

“I’m just recharging the batteries all the way – mind wise, body wise and just having a different look on tonight,” George said before the game. “I feel like I’ll get more out of it rest wise by just sitting out all the way.”

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Solomon Hill made the most of his opportunity Wednesday as the starters rested on the bench. He started in place of George and made the game’s first basket, a 3-pointer. He continued to make shots from the perimeter, which is not his norm. Hill led the Pacers to a 97-92 victory with 25 points, including a career-high seven made 3-pointers.

“My guys found me,” Hill said of his impressive performance. “I didn’t take any dribble up 3’s. I didn’t come off screens shooting 3’s. Everybody found me tonight and if I had space I was taking it. Why not?”

The win gave the Pacers a 45-37 record.

• BOX SCORE: Pacers 97, Bucks 92

Throughout this season, one of George’s biggest goals was to play all 82 games, a feat that he knew would be remarkable after fracturing his right leg on Aug. 1, 2014. Vogel gave George the option to play the first few minutes of Wednesday’s game, but he also reminded his star player what was ahead, his return in the postseason.

“I told him it would be best for his ankle just to rest up,” Vogel said before the game. “But I was willing to if he wanted to play to play him a short burst. We ultimately decided just to get ready for the playoffs.”

George acknowledged that the bone bruise in his left ankle, an injury he has played through since March 26, was the primary reason he did not appear Wednesday. The strength of his ankle, George said, was more important than having the number 82 under the amount of games played on his season statistics.

“It’s another day of being off it and it’s another day of being fresh, which is good because the ankle is getting better and it is healing,” said George, who averaged a career-high 23.1 points per game this season. “It just seems like every game I do the same movements and I re-aggravate it. It’s just good to have a couple days off where I can rest.”

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George was proud that he played in every relevant game that the Pacers needed before clinching their playoff spot and seed Tuesday in the win over the New York Knicks. He and Monta Ellis were just the fourth duo in franchise history to start in the first 81 games of the season (the last pair to complete a season starting every game was Chris Mullin and Mark Jackson in the 1997-98 season).

The last Pacer to play in every game in a season was Hill, who replaced the injured George in the starting lineup a year ago.

Hill smiled when he was reminded of that fact before the game. But Hill said the fact George could rest in the season finale signified the how stable the franchise is compared to a year ago, when it suffered so many injuries. Hill said George’s durability was a major reason.

“The back-to-backs, the four games in five nights, losing and winning. All that stuff is draining,” Hill said of playing 82 games. “Not just a toll on your body, but a toll on your mental. When you see guys go out for X-amount of time, and the lineup is always changing, it’s just different. But last year I was able to stay with it because it was really my first year playing. I was in a situation where I was young, we was hurt and I just took advantage of it.”

George’s absence Wednesday allowed rookie Rakeem Christmas to make his NBA debut. Christmas, who spent the majority of the season with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, the Pacers’ Development League affiliate, was told late Tuesday night from George that he would play in a Pacers’ uniform for the first time.

Christmas responded to the news with excitement.

“I was like ‘Thanks for locking up the seventh seed!’ he told George. “I’m just happy that I was able to play my first game.”

In six minutes, Christmas scored four points. His first basket in the NBA was a running layup on a pick-and-roll play.

“It was fun,” he said. “I just wanted to go out there and have fun and that’s what we did. We got the win, too.”

George cheered for Christmas. He pumped his fist several times during Wednesday’s game when his teammates performed well and put three fingers high in the air after Hill’s 3-pointers. With Ellis and George Hill sitting near him for most of the game, George wore the Pacers’ warmups and a blue headband.

In his lone chance this season to sit and watch, George enjoyed his rare night off.

Call Star reporter Nate Taylor at (317) 444-6484. Follow him on Twitter: @ByNateTaylor.

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