If you have been following the Indiana Pacers the last few weeks, the first thing you would say they need is practice.
Paul George’s tweet on Sunday night may indicate to some that he has other priorities.
Despite dropping the first game to the Atlanta Hawks 101-93, the bottom seed in the NBA playoffs, in unspectacular fashion, George decided the best course of action would be to go fishing on Sunday.
A lil R&R out on the lake with my bro jacob_wheeler12.. go follow him! http://t.co/aShn8FlLdM
— Paul George (@Paul_George24) April 21, 2014
First and foremost, Paul George’s mistake was not going fishing on Easter, a holiday that leads to the closing of most businesses for multiple days. His mistake was posting this picture to twitter, despite noting that it was therapeutic purposes.
R&R is commonly known to stand for “rest and relaxation,” or, in the military, “rest and recuperation.”
Regardless, this does not have Pacers fans too happy. Just take a look at the captions. I’ll let you read them for yourself.
Again, George was not wrong for taking Easter to spend time relaxing with friends and family. If the Pacers did not hold practice then that is perfectly acceptable. And if they did hold practice, I guarantee he was there from start to finish.
His mistake was forecasting this to the public, who are obviously taking his intentions the wrong way, although somewhat understandably after such a bad loss on Saturday night to the Hawks. The Pacers have now lost 13 of their last 23 games. Bob Kravitz of the Indystar elegantly lays it out:
Indiana has become the most confounding team in the NBA, a No. 1 seed that has completely lost its way this second half of the regular season. Suddenly, the Pacers seem poised for a very hard and inexplicable fall. It’s too early to write the epitaph on a once-great season gone terribly wrong, but the time is getting close.
…
“I think once we eliminate them from spreading us out like they did (Saturday night), we’ll be all right,” Paul George said. “…(The Hawks) played as good a game as they can possibly play.”
Empty words. It’s all the Pacers have to offer right now. If they weren’t ready for Game 1 — especially after getting embarrassed the last time the Hawks came to town — what makes anybody think they’ll get this thing figured out in time to save this season?
The collapse isn’t complete, not yet, but you can see it from here.
Ben Baroff is a basketball journalist who blogs for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter here.