Gregg Doyel

gregg.doyel@indystar.com

Game 3: Raptors at Pacers, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, FSI, NBA

TORONTO — The curtains parted as Paul George arrived Monday night for his postgame news conference. The Pacers had lost 98-87 to the Raptors, and George collapsed into the lone chair behind the single microphone and sighed theatrically. Or maybe it wasn’t theatrical. Probably not, come to think of it, because what Paul George has done for two games — what he has tried to do anyway — is exhausting.

And so is this:

He might have to do it again, and again, and again. He might have to keep doing this until the Pacers’ first-round series with the Raptors ends — one way or another.

Paul George probably knows he can’t beat the Raptors by himself. But he’s giving it a try.

Two games into this best-of-seven playoff series, George has been the superstar of team President Larry Bird’s dreams, the foundation upon which Bird hopes to build a contender. Two games into these playoffs, the rest of the structure is mostly barren, the occasional bucket by Monta Ellis or Myles Turner jutting up from the foundation like a pointless piece of plumbing pipe.

We interrupt this column to bring you the following news: Ian Mahinmi has missed another shot.

We return to remind you that the Pacers are returning to Bankers Life Fieldhouse this week with home-court advantage — no thanks to Game 2, when Paul George had to go it mostly alone in an 11-point loss.

George had to go it mostly alone in Game 1 as well, but such was his greatness Saturday that the seventh-seeded Pacers won anyway, and handily, a 100-90 stunner that had this Canadian city petrified of another Raptors playoff collapse.

Insider: Obscure Raptors beating Pacers

And that collapse still could be coming for No. 2 seed Toronto. The Raptors are vulnerable because their best player is awful. DeMar DeRozan is a two-time All-Star and the NBA’s ninth-leading scorer this season at 23.5 ppg, but two games into this series he can’t make a shot, can’t catch a pass, sometimes can’t even hit the rim. And in Game 2 he couldn’t get to the foul line. DeRozan was third in the NBA this season with a franchise-record 653 free throws, making Monday his first game all season — regular season or playoffs — without a single free throw.

Paul George has done that to DeRozan.

But we interrupt this column to bring you the following news: Rodney Stuckey has missed another shot in the lane against four Toronto defenders.

We return to remind you that the Pacers have suggested through two games that they can compete with the Raptors. The Pacers won Game 1. They rallied from a 40-22 deficit to get within four at 67-63 late in the third quarter of Game 2, and they did both of those things in the same building where they lost by 13 to a skeleton crew of Raptors — no DeRozan, no Kyle Lowry, not even a Luis Scola to be found — in the 79th game of the regular season. That game suggested for the Pacers: No way. The first two games of this series suggested: Well, maybe.

But George can’t do it alone. Not for four victories in seven games. He is his team’s LeBron James, and just as LeBron couldn’t superpower his short-handed Cleveland Cavaliers past the better Warriors in the 2015 NBA Finals, George won’t be able to do it against the better Raptors in this series. Not four times in seven games. He did it in Game 1, yes, and don’t be surprised if he does it again this series.

Don’t be surprised if he has to do it again this series.

The numbers through two games are staggering, and not just the scoring, though that is rather impressive. After pouring in 33 points in Game 1, George scored 28 in Game 2. His 61 points have come on just 37 shots.

The rest of the team: 126 points on 122 shots.

What’s happening here is a breakdown across the board, once the board moves past Paul George and gets to the rest of the Pacers:

George is shooting 54.1 percent from the floor this series (20-of-37); the rest of the team is at 38.4 percent (43-of-112).

George is shooting 75 percent on 3-pointers (6-of-8); the rest of the team is at 27.3 percent (9-of-33).

George is shooting 88.2 percent from the line (15-of-17); the rest of the team is at 73.8 percent (31-of-42).

George is even second on the team in assists (seven), tied for third in rebounds (eight) and tops in steals (five). He’s doing it all because he has to do it all. Luckily he’s good enough to do this five more times. Sadly, he might have to.

In Game 1, there was at least the semblance of balance, with four teammates joining him in double figures, albeit with a pair of 10-point games (Myles Turner, George Hill). Solomon Hill added 13, and Monta Ellis 15 (on 5-of-12 shooting).

In Game 2? No semblance. Ellis was the only other Pacer in double figures with 15 points, but he scored just three in the second half when the Pacers — sorry, when George — ran out of gas.

Raptors even series with 98-87 win over Pacers

What George has done — what he’s trying to do — has Kyle Lowry sounding awe-struck.

“There is no stopping PG,” Lowry said. “He’s playing phenomenal … You’re not going to stop him from getting 25, 30. He’s going to get that. That’s how talented he is.”

This is how alone he is: George outscored the rest of the Pacers’ starting five, 28-26. He almost outscored the bench, but garbage time allowed those eight players to nudge past him, 33-28.

And when it was over, the Pacers’ locker room scattered. C.J. Miles and Lavoy Allen were there to answer questions, but as the media filed in after coach Frank Vogel’s news conference, the room was mostly barren. Empty lockers. Nice wood. Maple, I think. Perhaps walnut.

Back down the hall, almost an hour after carrying his teammates, Paul George had to speak for them. And when he was finished, when he saw the security guard directing him down the hall toward the team bus, George let out another sigh.

And he walked out of Air Canada Centre by himself.

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

Game 3: Raptors at Pacers, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, FSI, NBA