George closed the scoring in regulation and opened the scoring 90 seconds into OT by burying a three to give Indiana a 92-89 lead. After an Anthony bucket got the Knicks within one, George answered right back with a mid-range J of his own.
Over the summer, George said he did a lot of work shooting mid-range shots and isolation plays. Or as he put it, “finding spots on the floor where I can raise up and shoot.” That work he put in was on display on Wednesday night more so than ever before.
“He’s got the length to get his shot off. It’s very difficult to contest it,” Vogel said. “His little inside-out moves, his Kobe Bryant moves where he’s taking a lateral dribble to create some air space for himself. It just comes down to his shot-making.”
Keep in mind that Paul George is 23 years old and improving on both sides of the floor, growing more confident with each new situation he flourishes in. Anthony has seemingly peaked as a player and George has passed Melo by in his stratospheric rise to superstardom. While Vogel is comparing George to Kobe Bryant, Anthony has morphed into a one-dimensional player. A volume scorer on a good, but not great team.
George scored 12 of the final 15 points for the Pacers to win this game almost single-handedly. Indiana went on to win the game 103-96 and really crush the Knicks’ spirits. It was New York’s 6th straight loss at home
“It’s a tough way to let it slip out of your hands,” Anthony said. “I thought we had the game won, but in overtime they just walked away with it.”
(Related: Anthony’s questionable future with the Knicks)
More specifically he, George, walked away with it.
Vogel remarked that George is “obviously sensational. Even as he’s become sort-of our go-to guy, he’s still very new at crunch-time minutes for us. I think he showed another step. The guy’s got big guts.”
George thinks he’s developed that killer instinct that players like LeBron James and Bryant possess. “A lot of guys don’t now how to” have that killer instinct to mercilessly take a game over in an opposing arena, as George said. “Most people are just born with it. I felt like I was born with it, I just didn’t know how to do it. And now I’m just learning myself again and growing with that confidence.”
That confidence has come to fruition on the court and in the ole StatBox. Besides for rebounds, which Roy Hibbert and David West take care of pretty capably for the Pacers, George has been superior to Anthony in every major category over the season’s first 11 games.
13-14 | Min | FG % | Pts | Reb | Ast | Stl | PER | TS % | eFG % | O Rtg | D Rtg | WS | WS/48 |
Anthony | 39.9 | 41.6 | 26.1 | 9.5 | 2.8 | 1.4 | 21.7 | 51 | 44.5 | 103 | 107 | 1 | 0.106 |
George | 36.7 | 46.5 | 24.4 | 6.8 | 3.3 | 1.7 | 24.5 | 58.6 | 52.8 | 113 | 93 | 2.2 | 0.262 |
Anthony is actually a negative net player if you take the difference between offensive and defensive rating, while George has been efficient on the offensive end and undoubtedly elite defensively. George has scored 1.7 fewer points per game than Anthony, but on 4.3 fewer shots per game (18 for George, to 22.3 for Anthony). George is also a better 3-point and foul shooter than Anthony.
Some will call this too small of a sample size to determine who is better, but George already started to show his superiority in the playoffs last season when Anthony shot just 40.6 percent from the field with a 100 offensive rating compared to the 112 he had during the regular season. George’s offensive rating remained the same, 104, in both the regular season and the playoffs and has only improved this season.
So what has changed between this season and last?
In the past, George said he “would have deferred, to have someone else be in that position or that role. This time around, I just wanted to be aggressive.”
Anthony said that “all it takes is confidence in this league. I think with George, that’s what he has right now, and it’s growing day by day, game by game, and you can see that when he’s out on the court.”
While George is improving, Anthony remains exactly who he is: A volume scorer who’s a decent defender. Not elite, not like Paul George.
As the Knicks continue to lose, perhaps their fan base will begin to realize that as well.
Shlomo Sprung is a national columnist for Sheridan Hoops who loves advanced statistics and the way they explain what happens on the court. He is also the web editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. A 2011 graduate of Columbia University’s Journalism School, he has previously worked for the New York Knicks, The Sporting News, Business Insider and other publications. His website is SprungOnSports.com. You should follow him on Twitter.