MINNEAPOLIS _ So that's why the NBA named Indiana's Paul George an Eastern Conference All-Star Game reserve not long before his team's 109-103 victory over the Timberwolves on Thursday night at Target Center.
Now headed to New Orleans next month and his fourth All-Star Game appearance, George scored 32 points Thursday _ 27 of them in the first three quarters _ in a performance that helped end the Wolves' winning streak at three games and stopped the Pacers' losing streak at three as well.
Not even the Wolves' four 3-pointers made late in the game _ three of them by big man Karl-Anthony Towns _ were enough to catch up to a Pacers team that had led by nine points with two minutes left.
The Wolves trailed 102-97 after Towns made one of two free throws on a 33-point, 10-rebound night. But Pacers guard C.J. Miles' desperate, clutch 3-pointer near the 24-second shot-clock expiration put Indiana ahead 105-97 with 47.3 seconds left.
The Wolves got within 106-102 with 15.8 seconds, but didn't foul Jeff Teague and officials didn't call Teague out of bounds when he appeared to step over the line as he tried to get by Andrew Wiggins while bringing the ball up the right sideline.
Pacers center Myles Turner scored 21 points and Teague added 20.
George was named an Eastern Conference reserve less than an hour before Thursday's game. He's going back to the All-Star Game again less than three years after he horrifically broke his ankle during a Team USA summer scrimmage.
"To overcome the way he has, I think he's better now than he was then," Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau said. "And I thought he was great then. To get past that, I know he went through a lot."
After trailing by as many as 10 points, the Wolves were within a point with fewer than seven minutes left when the Pacers scored the next four points _ all on George free throws _ to push the Wolves back.
Three of those free throws came after Andrew Wiggins was called for fouling George on a 3-point shot.
The one came when Thibodeau was whistled for a technical foul after he argued a little too enthusiastically the foul call.
Without any more ticks off the clock, the Pacers' 82-81 lead quickly went to 86-81 and when Miles scored the next points as well on a made 3-pointer, Indiana led 89-81 with six minutes left in the game.
The Wolves led 5-2 and 13-9 early, but the Pacers used a 9-0 run late in the first quarter to take a seven-point lead before Shabazz Muhammad's two quarter-ending free throws sent the Wolves into the second quarter trailing 25-20.
The Pacers led by seven points when the Wolves answered back, starting it with a hustle play that included both Zach LaVine and Nemanja Bjelica separately saving the ball from going out of bounds before Kris Dunn found Shabazz Muhammad open for an alley-oop.
That began an 11-4 run that included a Dunn 3-pointer made that tied the score at 35 with 4 { minutes remaining before halftime.
Indiana responded with another run of its own, this one eight unanswered points started by point guard Jeff Teague's made three that he turned into a foul and a rare four-point play.
That put them ahead 43-35 with 3:19 and they took a 52-46 lead into halftime after George had scored 16 points, Pacers young center Turner 13 and Teague 10 by then.
The Pacers scored the second half's first four points and led by 10 _ at 56-46 _ before the Wolves scored the next 10 points uninterrupted to tie the game.
They did so with Towns scored six of those 10 points, but the Wolves didn't stay even for long.
They didn't because George put a stop to their run by making a three-point shot and when former Wolves forward Thad Young scored on a fast break, the Pacers quickly led by five points again, at 61-56 with 7:46 still left in the third quarter.
Indiana led by as many as eight points late in the third quarter and again early in the fourth quarter, but the Wolves got within two points twice before Towns' hard work for a layup that drew a foul produced a three-point play and got the Wolves within 82-81 with 7:09 left.
