George Hill left the game last night after falling to the floor in pain. The replay was ugly: Hill elevated for a jumper and came down on his defender’s foot, rolling his ankle and collapsing to the hardwood. A sprain was the best you could really hope for but this sounds worse. He has a “chip fracture” in the left ankle.
George Hill said he must take the bad with the good. The Indiana Pacers had some of both Tuesday night.
Hill was sidelined indefinitely by a small chip fracture in his left ankle during the Pacers’ 106-99 victory over the New Jersey Nets at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
Fortunately, the Pacers do have pretty good depth in the back court. Darren Collison, Lance Stephenson (who played excellently last night, recording 5 assists in 12 minutes) and AJ Price can all play the point. Paul George, Dahntay Jones and Stephenson can both all play the two. And Coach Frank Vogel could perhaps even be willing to play AJ Price along with Collison in a pinch if foul trouble or another injury occurs.
Terrible news though, obviously. I’m not even sure what a good time table for return is from this, but I wouldn’t expect him back any time soon.
It’s been a tumultuous year so far for Hill. He started off his homecoming by shooting horribly in his first three games. Then, he was the Pacers best player in a tough win in Boston and a win the next night in Indianapolis against Charlotte. But near the end of that Bobcats game, he got tangled up with Gerald Henderson and was send crash-landing to the floor with his back taking all the blunt-force trauma. He was forced to miss the next game and then didn’t look right still in his first game back against Atlanta. No matter: the next game, he was back to being the best Pacer on the court, leading Indiana to a win in Toronto while scoring 22 points on 11 shots to go along with 5 steals. For the following two weeks, however, he was back to being either lackluster or irrelevant, detracting more than he helped. Then, out of the blue, he was arguably the Pacers best player again in a the team’s blowout win over Orlando on Sunday.
So far with Hill this season, it has been mostly feast or famine. He has either taken over stretches of games or been largely ineffective and barely noticeable. His presence as a “6th starter” will be much missed, but this is just one more wrinkle in what has been a somewhat strange ride for Hill so far since his professional career has brought him back to his home town.
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