How to watch Paul George's return to Indiana online

Paul George spent the first seven seasons of his career with the Pacers. The 27-year-old forward racked up four All-Star bids during his time there. But the Pacers decided to move on from their star by trading him to the Oklahoma City Thunder in June. Nearly six months later, George will head back to Indiana to collide with his former team on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET. ESPN (live stream) will broadcast the game.

Oklahoma City (12-14) has gotten off to a rough start this season. This team has been terrible on the boards, only corralling 31.5 defensive rebounds per game — good for 25th in the NBA. Yes, OKC scores 101.8 points per game, but it has to do a better job of collecting rebounds to ensure more offensive possessions in this game.

However, the Pacers (16-11) have been better than expected this season. Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis, the two players Oklahoma City shipped for George, are producing at a high level this season. The Pacers currently have six players who average more than 10 points per game, so they need those same players to score and share the basketball to knock off the Thunder.

Time: 7 p.m. ET
Location: Bankers Life Fieldhouse
TV: ESPN
Streaming: WatchESPN | fuboTV (local markets only)
Odds: The Thunder are favored by 1

When the Thunder lost to the Brooklyn Nets on Friday night it marked the fourth loss against teams that will vie for the cream of the 2018 Draft crop. Brooklyn, Dallas, Orlando, and Sacramento are a combined 36 and 66, or 35.3%, and yet are a surprising 4 and 0 against the Thunder.
A thorough throttling of the defending NBA Champ Golden State Warriors on November 22 showed us how good this Thunder team could become, but the 4 lottery team losses show just as clearly how bad this team truly is when they don’t remain focused.
It doesn’t take a genius to see the difference. When the Thunder move the ball and keep everyone involved, not just the Big 3, but everyone involved, they can beat anyone. When they play the game right the Thunder can beat teams above .500 three times in a row and even erase double-digit 4th quarter deficits, when they don’t, and there is really no nice way to put this, they can’t beat anyone.

Victor Oladipo is averaging 24.5 points with career highs in rebounds and steals while shooting better than 44 percent from behind the arc. Calling this is a career season implies that these levels of production were thought to be remotely plausible for the fifth-year pro. This isn’t a career year, it’s a career redefinition.
With Oladipo playing like an All-Star, the Pacers have put themselves in prime contention for a playoff spot. Neither of those things seemed possible when the season began, but here we are.
While we rightfully praise Oladipo during his breakthrough campaign, we should reexamine the circumstances that makes this feel like such a surprise. We might just learn a few things.

With just over three minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Pacers were down seven to the Nuggets. They had trailed by as many as 19 and had rallied back to make it a game again.
Then Victor Oladipo exploded for one of the most incredible late-game surges across the league this season. Thanks to him, Indiana forced overtime and won, 126-116.
Oladipo set a new career-high 47 points on 15-of-28 (53.6 percent) shooting from the field and 6-of-12 shooting from downtown. He scored 32 points in the second half, including eight of Indiana’s last 10 fourth quarter points and six points in overtime.

The Pacers look like the better team right now. They are playing as a cohesive unit, so Oklahoma City's Big 3 will not be able to stop the Oladipo-led Pacers.