The most important fishing trip in NBA playoff history

There's certainly been no shortage of active storylines this postseason. It's been the playoffs of Miami going for the threepeat, cruising their way to what (at one point anyway) looked like an easy fourth consecutive trip to the NBA Finals. It's been the playoffs of MVP Kevin Durant, with his iconic award acceptance speech galvanizing his Thunder team through their second-round series. And it's definitely been the playoffs of the Los Angeles Clippers, fighting through some historic off-court drama to scrap through an epic seven-game first-rounder and possibly to their first conference finals appearance in franchise history.

It's been the playoffs of all of these things. But after this weekend, first and foremost, it's been the playoffs of Paul George and Roy Hibbert going fishing. 

Two weeks ago, if you thought we'd be talking about Paul George and Roy Hibbert going fishing at this point, you'd assume it was in the metaphorical, Inside-the-NBA sense, and it wouldn't have been all that surprising. The Pacers were down 2-1 and 3-2 in their first-round series against the Hawks, with the historic underperformance of Hibbert--including a zero-rebound, zero-point game--being the most obvious reason why.

Then after the Pacers escaped that series by the skin of their teeth, they lost convincingly at home to the surging Wizards in Game One, in Hibbert's second 0/0 game of the postseason. "It's gonna be a short series," Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley agreed at halftime of Game 1, declaring Indiana dead to rights. "Quick and painless." 

But before they figuratively went fishing, Paul George and Roy Hibbert literally went fishing. I can only speculate as to exactly what kind of fishing it was or where it took place--Hibbert said they were going for bass, so maybe they were hunting out some largemouth at Patoka Lake in anticipation of this year's Big Bass Bash competition. And really, if you were Hibbert and your team's leader invited you out fishing a day after your worst game in what was already an unprecedentedly miserable playoffs, you might be envisioning more of a Godfather Part II-style outcome to the fishing trip than anything else. 

I'm sure when the book about this Pacers season is eventually written--and a fascinating book that will be, regardless--it'll include every single detail about Paul and Roy's trip, down to the exact sizes and weights of all fish caught, since it now appears to have been the outing that revived the Pacers' season. 

At first, the story of the Pacers all-star duo's fishing trip seemed like a cute story for the media to make too much out of for a day or two, especially when credited for his excellent Game 2 performance - 28 points (10-13 FG) and nine rebounds, after just going for 13 points and nine rebounds over his last four games combined - by the center himself.

Yesterday after practice, [George] invited me out on his boat and we fished for about two hours, and just relaxed and didn’t talk about basketball. We just talked about life and trying to catch some bass. He reached out and got my mind off things. Hopefully it’s something I can build on, and he’s a great teammate, so I really do appreciate him reaching out because he didn’t have to.

A very nice moment, no doubt, though one whose impact seemed likely circumstantial if not downright coincidental, and one we certainly wouldn't have expected to hear that much more about - especially given how after Hibbert's previous best game of the playoffs, a 13-point, seven-board, five-block performance in Indiana's Game 7 closeout victory over Atlanta, he rebounded with the 0/0 opener against Washington in a Pacers loss. 

But two games in Washington, and two Indiana victories later, and the fishing trip has become the stuff of Indiana history. After last night's unlikely Game 4 victory, in which Washington led by double digits at halftime and by nine midway through the fourth, Tracy Wolfson again asked Paul George about that bass expedition five days earlier, after he and Hibbert embraced postgame. "As fishing does for me, I know it make everybody happy," George told Wolfson. "I'm glad he came out on the boat with me." 

This time, Hibbert's stats haven't crashlanded back to earth after his breakout performance--rather, in the two ensuing victories, he's averaged 15.5 points on 57 percent shooting, with seven rebounds and 2.5 blocks. His offensive play these last three games has been unrecognizable compared to the guy who seemed to have the scoring yips the entire first round, the guy who was rimming out putbacks and sending baby hooks clear over the rim--this Hibbert is actually backing down defenders in the paint and rolling in sweeping hooks with a soft touch, a legitimate post threat that's actually carried Indiana's offense for stretches. 

More importantly than the counting stats he's put up, he just looks like Roy Hibbert again, particularly on the defensive end, where he's been an absolute gamechanger against Washington's penetration, just as he was against Miami and New York last playoffs.

After a stretch late in Game 4 in which Indiana went small with David West and Luis Scola--something they had to do out of absolute necessity against Atlanta, and which many had called for Vogel to do for far more of the series--and Washington scored at the rim on a couple consecutive possessions, they had no choice but to bring Hibbert back in off the bench to stop the bleeding, as 180-degree a turn of events as you could ask for after he had proved so thoroughly unplayable for most of the first eight games of the playoffs. 

Now, it's starting to look like Hibbert could be the ultimate swing player of this entire postseason. Before the weekend, it seemed no matter who the Heat faced - and smart money was probably still on the Wizards - in the East Final, that Miami would be able to pancake 'em pretty easily and make their fourth straight finals proper.

But with Hibbert back in the fold now, and just one win in three tries (two at home) separating Indiana from punching their own ticket to the ECFs, you remember what Roy was able to do against Miami in the teams' series last year - 22 points and 10 rebounds a game on 56 percent shooting - and wonder if this similarly undersized, one-year-older squad is going to be in real trouble if they have to face Indiana again this year (Not to mention that they might still have their work cut out for them against Brooklyn in the semis). 

It's obviously great news for Indiana fans, and really just good news for NBA fans at large. Hibbert's inexplicable disappearance through the first round (and dating back to the final months of the regular season, to a slightly lesser extent) and the Pacers' consequentially somnambulistic play over the same timespan was a pretty big bummer, not just because it meant the Heat would likely plow through the East largely unchallenged, but because this Pacers team was just fun to watch when they were swaggering on all cylinders. The playoffs are simply more interesting with the Pacers as a legitimate factor, which - as they've now reminded us - they certainly are when Roy gets himself right.

And whether or not it was actually what made the difference - Paul George exploding for 39 and 12 in Game 4 probably helped some as well - that bass expedition is going to get all the credit for bringing Hibbert and the Pacers back to life. If Indy can squeak by Washington in Game 5 on the way to their second-straight East Final, it could start to develop an 8 Points, 9 Seconds-type mystique in Pacer lore, and completely change the meaning of "Gone Fishin" in the NBA vernacular. 

"We gotta bring our A-Game, 'coz this team's coming," George told Wolfson in anticipation of said Game 5 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, at the end of his post-game interview last night. "I suggest a fishing trip," advised the sideline reporter. The Pacers better hope Randy Wittman wasn't listening, or they might bump into the Wizards out on the Indiana waters, desperately trying to reclaim their own lost mojo.