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Every minute the Indiana Pacers play without Paul George on the floor is a minute spent in jeopardy. The offense tends to flail without him, thrown hopelessly off balance by the misguided creation of Ty Lawson and Rodney Stuckey. A normally stout defense, too, loses the support of its basic structure when George isn’t around to assume crucial assignments.
It seemed inevitable, then, that the Raptors would make some kind of run when George took his rest at the start of the fourth quarter in Game 5 – particularly since Pacers coach Frank Vogel opted to fill that void with one of his team’s worst lineups.