Gregg Doyel

gregg.doyel@indystar.com

INDIANAPOLIS – Four games into the season, the Indiana Pacers have a point guard problem. His name is Jeff Teague, and he’s shooting poorly. Defending worse. Displaying, at times, a startling lack of interest.

Wasn’t he supposed to be the solution?

Luckily for Teague and the rest of the Pacers, Paul George went into superstar mode Tuesday night — “It was like a video game,” teammate Thaddeus Young said — and that was enough to lift Indiana past the really bad Los Angeles Lakers 115-108.

Do me a favor, and don’t confuse “my team won” with “my team doesn’t have a major problem.” Are the Pacers your team? Great. But your team has a major problem.

Let’s cut Teague some slack and acknowledge that he’s still finding his way. New team, new system, new teammates. It’s not a new city — Teague graduated from Pike High School — and who doesn’t want the hometown kid to do well? Maybe, when all is said and done, he will do well. For sure he’ll be better than he has been through four games.

• BOX SCORE: Pacers 115, Lakers 108

Pacers at Bucks, 8 p.m. Thursday, FSI

On the season, Teague is shooting 22 percent from the floor (11-of-50), 6.7 percent on 3-pointers (1-of-15) and 66.7 percent on free throws (10-of-15). It’s a small sample size, just four games, but Teague is shooting poorly in all three categories. He was shooting so badly Tuesday night, the Lakers dropped off him late in the fourth quarter, clogging the lane and leaving Teague alone behind the 3-point arc. Teague shot two of them, missed them both, and the Lakers capitalized at the other end.

Understand, this game had no business being close. The Lakers were playing their third road game in five days, they’re headed for the bottom of the Western Conference, and they played poorly even for them on Tuesday night: 21.4 percent shooting on 3-pointers, 14 assists, 19 turnovers. They were terrible.

And they led Indiana 108-107 with less than 2 minutes left.

That’s when Paul George took over, but not with his point guard creating opportunities for him.

Nah, didn’t happen that way.

Because Teague wasn’t able to get the offense going, Paul George took it upon himself. He drove into the lane and hit a difficult scoop shot. He stuck an 18-footer. Then another. And another. He hit two free throws. Then two more. Then it was over.

George scored all 12 Pacers points in the final 3:58, and a disaster had been averted. And this would have been a disaster, make no mistake. The Pacers already had lost two consecutive games, following their encouraging victory against Dallas in the season opener with discouraging losses at Brooklyn and Chicago, losses that were so bad, these were some of coach Nate McMillan’s comments before the game Tuesday:

“The tape doesn’t lie. It shows your effort, how you’re playing, executing. There were lots of things on those tapes we didn’t like.”

“I want to see more urgency at both ends of the floor.”

He didn’t see it Tuesday night. He saw a victory, yes I know that, but he saw it unfold at times in dispiriting fashion. The Pacers were sleepwalking early — George shot an air ball, Teague shot an air ball and Monta Ellis simply dropped the ball on the perimeter — before scoring their first points of the game. Moments later Ellis was standing on the perimeter, holding the ball, looking around, when Lakers guard Jose Calderon just took it from him.

It’s too early for the Pacers to lack such focus, such intensity, but it’s also too early for Bankers Life Fieldhouse to be roughly one-fifth empty. Which it was Tuesday night, the second home game of the season. The announced crowd was 15,348, but, well, you know. What is it they say about numbers? Sometimes they lie?

Afterward McMillan spoke the truth about Paul George’s one-man show down the stretch, saying the Pacers offense was “searching for places to go” and that “I would like to see us have more flow to our offense.”

Which led to a question about his point guard, specifically Teague’s struggles with his shot.

“I don’t want to put pressure on him,” McMillan said. “We’re running a couple sets to try to get him involved. ‘Just let the game come to you,’ is what I’ve told him. ‘Don’t be concerned about your shots not falling. You work on that every singe day. That will come.’ ”

You have to believe it will. Teague was a 44.5 percent shooter, 35.5 percent on 3-pointers, in seven seasons in Atlanta. But he was 4-of-15 on Tuesday night. He shot two air balls from less than 5 feet. He missed both free throws, his only free throws in the past three games.

He’s better than this.

But for four games he has been icy on offense, and disastrous on defense. Meanwhile, the point guard he replaced, George Hill, has been tearing it up in Utah. Is that not fair to mention? Sue me. I’m mentioning it. Through four games, Hill is leading the Jazz at 20.2 ppg. He has a nearly 5-to-1 ratio of assists (19) to turnovers (4).

Most media folks around here, me included, lauded the Teague-for-Hill transition. It was a net win for the Pacers, we said. Yes, we acknowledged, Hill is a better defender. But Teague’s offense will make up the difference, and then some.

Just watch.

That’s what we said then. What am I saying now?

Four games into the season, it looks like we were wrong. Four games into the season, we owe George Hill an apology.

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