The Indiana Pacers will be receiving an early Christmas present tonight with the return of George Hill. Hill has been sidelined with a left knee contusion, which turned into a quad muscle tear, on Oct. 21 as one of several Pacers to miss significant time due to injury. The Pacers are 9-19 to start the season and with the return of Hill, they could maybe slide right into that non-competitive 8th seed. Hill has averaged 10.3 points, 3.5 assists and 3.7 rebounds in his career.
“We’re going to bring him off the bench,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said. “We felt like he’s healthy enough to play. His conditioning is still going to be a concern, we’re just going to keep an eye on it. We won’t play him huge minutes but it will be a good situation to get his feet wet.”
Vogel will be very careful with Hill tonight, limiting his minutes, but also playing him with different groups such as the starting lineup and the 2nd unit.
“Right now, he’s just kind of finding a rhythm, he’s just playing the game,” Vogel said. “We always want him to be assertive on the offensive end but it’s really about finding a rhythm right now.”
Watch the return of George Hill tonight at 7:00 est as the Indiana Pacers take on the New Orleans Pelicans for the first time this season.
