Pacers beat Wizards for 6th straight home win

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Good enough to beat the Wizards, not good enough to satisfy Paul George.

George had 29 points and 14 rebounds, leading the Indiana Pacers to an 89-81 victory over Washington on Wednesday night.

“I’m glad we got this win but we’ve got to look past this,” George said. “We didn’t do a good enough job executing.

“Luckily we made enough shots to win, but we didn’t do a good job at all of executing. We let them pressure us and get us out of stuff; we play tough teams and that’s not going to fly.”

The Wizards (4-26) came into the game with the NBA’s worst record, and had lost eight straight against the Central Division-leading Pacers (19-13).

A strong start by the Pacers helped ensure another loss for the Wizards. The Pacers opened with an 8-0 run and led by as many as 17 points in the first quarter.

“It’s all about the first quarter. I don’t know honestly how to fix it,” Washington’s Emeka Okafor said. “The past two games, teams have jumped on us.”

Still, Washington didn’t go away easily.

After falling behind 24-7, the Wizards took advantage of Indiana’s turnovers and cold shooting to pull within 38-35 with 5:16 to play in the first half. The Pacers had six turnovers and shot just 7 of 22 from the field in the second quarter but still led 47-39 at the break.

“Until we come together as a group, we’re going to have our ups and downs through every game,” Wizards coach Randy Wittman said. “We talked this morning about how we wanted to end this bad run and end it now.”

A 10-4 run to start the third quarter brought the Wizards within 51-49, prompting a timeout by Pacers coach Frank Vogel. The Pacers responded with a 12-4 run over the next 6:27 to regain a double-digit lead.

“The NBA is a game of runs,” Pacers guard D.J. Augustin said. “Teams are going to make runs on you, no matter how much you’re up on them.”

Augustin, making his second straight start because of the injury to George Hill (strained right groin), scored a season-high 18 points. Ten of those came in the fourth quarter, with eight coming at the free-throw line.

Vogel said Hill could have played if necessary on Wednesday, but was held out as a precaution.

“The way he put it to me, his pain was improving but his ability to explode was not,” Vogel said. “He didn’t feel he could push off and move the way he wanted to when he was working out in pregame, so we gave him another game. If we had an injury to one of our point guards, he could have played, but he would have been extremely limited.”

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