The Pacers need Paul George way too much, and somehow they need him even more

In Game 5 against the Raptors, Paul George scored 39 points on 19 shots and notched eight assists, eight rebounds, two blocks and two steals while playing 41 minutes. The Pacers still lost. At one point, the Pacers were up by 17 points. The Pacers still lost. Entering the fourth quarter, the Pacers were up 13 points. The Pacers still lost.

No team sport spotlights the impact and failures of the individual quite like basketball. George had a hand in 47 percent of the Pacers scoring in Game 5. Think about that: On a team where 10 players got minutes, one man scored or created almost half of their points.

On top of that, George is also throttling DeMar DeRozan’s market value. George held DeRozan to 29 percent shooting in the first four games, and while DeRozan broke out in Game 5, he was spurred by an eight-point flurry in the three and a half minutes George sat out in the first half.

As you’d expect, the Pacers suffer badly when George rests:

Afterwards, George said he’s willing to play all 48 minutes if that’s what it takes for his team to win. He also expressed disappointment in his teammates’ performances:

George was simply alluding to an obvious truth: His teammates are not close to his level. Most of them are simply bad, especially offensively. It’s time to stop expecting more from them. The Pacers managed to win one game (Game 4) without George being the obvious force he normally is. George Hill and Ian Mahinmi each scored 22 points, and the team played staunch defense to hold the Raptors to only 83 points.

Contrast that with the rest of the series. In Game 1, Hill scored 10 and Mahinmi had just one point, yet it didn’t matter because George scored 33 and held DeRozan to 5-of-19 shooting. In Game 2, Hill and Mahinmi scored a combined nine points in a blowout loss. In another double-digit defeat in Game 3, they had 20, five fewer than George’s individual 25. In Game 5, the two had 19 between them, 20 fewer than George by himself. Other Pacers occasionally contribute -- sometimes Monta Ellis will get hot before dropping down to single digits; sometimes Myles Turner and Solomon Hill play above their means -- but that’s about it.

In retrospect, it’s laughable the Pacers planned to move George from small forward to a stretch power forward role in the preseason. Not only would it have negated George’s size advantage on the wing, but it also would have limited the use of his speed and ability on the ball, not to mention his defensive aptitude against other wing players. Instead, it’d match him up against players bigger and stronger than him. He’d most likely lose those battles while taking more punishment than necessary.

The Pacers’ desire for change once they realized their smash-mouth core had run its course is commendable, but playing their best player in his best position should have been a given. This series makes it especially clear that the Pacers can’t survive if George is not at his absolute best all the time. Actually, not just his absolute best, but even more than that.

While George currently leads the playoffs in points and is second in PER, he needs to do more for Indiana to win. It’s cruel and greedy for the Pacers to expect more, but they have no choice. They are facing elimination, so George must put the team on his back one more time.

It’s fascinating to watch an athlete like George shift into desperation mode. Their greatness is already known; in George’s case, it’s accentuated further because he’s only 20 months removed from a horrific leg break. But when those stars’ teams face death and they’ve accepted that the help they need from teammates isn’t coming, they often somehow manage to reach that level beyond even their best.

We saw two memorable instances of this phenomenon last year. LeBron James was in the same back-against-the-wall situation as the Cavaliers faced the Warriors in the Finals, and responded by having one of the greatest series in basketball history. He averaged 35.8 points, 8.8 assists and 13.3 rebounds per game while scoring more than 38 percent of his team’s points. When James wasn’t on the floor, the rest of the Cavaliers shot 0-for-21.

Before that, it was up to Russell Westbrook to save the Thunder with Kevin Durant injured. Out of pride, his own ambitious character and the burden placed on him as the only offensive force on a team with limited weapons, Westbrook went on a rampage that resulted in 18 triple-doubles that season. He led the league in scoring and finished sixth in assists.

Sadly, these two performances both ended in failure. The Cavaliers lost the Finals, while the Thunder missed the playoffs because of a freak buzzer-beater. The Pacers themselves look likely to be eliminated barring a major turnaround.

The failure of the individual is therefore something basketball makes abundantly clear. Players like James, Westbrook and George can squeeze out every ounce of basketball in their spirit and perform far above their very best, yet still come up short.

George has to do more, and he most likely will. He will rage against the dying of the light and maybe salvage Friday’s Game 6. Maybe, against all sense, he’ll help the Pacers advance in Sunday’s Game 7.

Then, he will have to reach an even higher level in the next round. If he somehow can and the Pacers get through to the conference Finals, he’ll have to do even better on the stage after that. The further he rises, the more he’ll have to rise by himself against teams with multiple stars. Eventually, he will tire and the other players will have to step up. From all the evidence available, there’s more hope in praying that George continues pushing his limits than his help coming through at all.

This type of situation is fun to watch if you’re fascinated by the brilliance and limits of an individual in a team sport, but it’s absolutely fatal for a team and its supporters. We know Paul George can do 47 percent of his team’s work and possibly more, but he can’t do 100 percent.