Paul George frustrated DeMar DeRozan throughout Game 1 and forced the All-Star into taking bad, contested shots he usually avoids.
The Indiana Pacers did a great job of forcing the Toronto Raptors to miss shots in Game 1. They held the home team to 38.5% shooting overall (30-for-78) and limited a squad that hit nearly 9 triples per game this season to just 4 makes from deep. The Pacers also forced 20 turnovers and turned those takeaways into 25 points.
Really, if Indiana had actually gotten some defensive rebounds, their 10-point victory would have been an even larger margin. The one thing Toronto excelled at in Game 1 was the offensive glass, grabbing 20 offensive boards — including 11 by Jonas Valanciunas alone — and scoring 17 second-chance points.
But the field-goal defense by the entire Pacers team was excellent.
It was particularly great against DeMar DeRozan. This was led by Paul George blanketing and harassing the Raptor All-Star all night. PG fought through screens to ensure DeRozan couldn’t find daylight easily, contested nearly every attempt DeRozan tried in his area, and frustrated DeMar into rushed looks when he did find some space.
The master work started on the first play of the game, and a theme for the game emerged. DeMar simply wasn’t prepared to deal with Paul George’s uncanny ability to not get beat, always recovering from seemingly unfathomable distances when the ballhandler thinks he has enough space to get off a good look.
In this first possession, PG got caught up on two Jonas screens. DeMar has half the court to work with. And he hits George with an effective crossover that seems to get him enough space for the stepback. In fairness, DeRozan does have space here for a tough — but makable for him — shot. And his attempt is just barely off. But PG does recover after getting shook by the nice dribble move enough to tightly contest the look.
This would be a theme all game and one that — perhaps due to not playing against a playoff-intensity PG in a few years, if ever — DeMar would never adjust to all game long.
Less than 3 minutes later, DeMar would again get an advantage on PG. George couldn’t get over a Jonas screen as quickly as he normally does and DeRozan was able to dribble unimpeded to the elbow for a jumper. Myles Turner was sagging too deep. DeMar knew he had the bucket.
Nope.
Paul George wasn’t that slow. Because he’s Paul George.
He blocked the jumper from behind.
Something similar happened to kick off the second-half: DeMar thought he was clear in the lane for a bucket. But Paul George wasn’t beat and he poked the ball away.
And if Paul George wasn’t blocking DeRozan’s shot or stripping him before he could even take one, he was beating the Raptor to the spot. Twice he anticipated where the action was headed and got there first.
Paul George drew two charges on DeMar in Game 1.
Of course, Paul George isn’t perfect. There were times when his teammates did the work for him. In one instance, DeMar found George Hill checking him as Toronto pushed the ball ahead quickly. He was salivating and it didn’t take long to get by Hill.
But Turner was right there, and an overly cavalier Euro step did nothing to beat the rookie big. Myles punched the weak attempt.
Myles swatted at least two other DeRozan attempts on the rare instances when he the Raptor guard was able to get a step on Paul George. Again, DeMar seemed unprepared for the Pacers strategy — which while evolved from their previous incarnations still features PG staying discipline and not fouling as he recovers and tries to corral the ballhandler into a waiting rim protector.
If it wasn’t Turner it was Mahinmi, or on one instance Monta Ellis, who rotated over to force DeRozan into pulling up for a highly contested floater.
These aren’t unmakable shots. You would expect DeMar to hit them on occasion. But they aren’t easy, and not getting any unencumbered shots all night was obviously weighing on him..
The result of all the attention and misses was a frustrated DeMar DeRozan. He isn’t accustomed to being unable to get good looks nor a whole team defense so focused on preventing him from getting anything off. All opponents game plan for him. But this is the playoffs. And this is Frank Vogel. So the plan is a bit more disciplined and effective than the average Tuesday outing against the Nuggets.
The frustration shows in the film.
DeMar Derozan attempted just 47 shots from 3-point range in the regular season. That’s a bit more than one 3 every other game. It’s just not a part of his game. He doesn’t have that range and, much like a young Dwyane Wade did, he simply abandoned 3-point land.
But he launchd up 3 triples in Game 1. And it looks quite obvious that he was letting them fly because that was the only time he could find space without Paul George or rotating bigs preventing him from seeing the rim well.
In fairness, one of the 3s was very open, coming off an offensive rebound. But two were clear examples of DeMar catching and shooting while thinking, “I gotta see the ball go through the hoop and I’m not gonna get anything else more open on this possession anyway, so …”
This isn’t a good approach. DeMar, a 28.3% career 3-point shooter, should not let frustration take him out of his normal mind set. But Paul George and the other Pacers protecting the paint clearly did.
That’s what Game 1 was about for DeRozan. This wasn’t a bad shooting night that will definitely turn around in Game 2.
This was a guy who was flummoxed, confused, and unable to find any daylight all game. He didn’t really have an answer and he didn’t even try that hard to find one.
If DeMar DeRozan continues to let Paul George and the Pacers dictate how he attacks, the Raptors are going to have a tough time winning this series.