LA Clippers: Paul George Responded to Dudley vs. Cavaliers

When Paul George, Kawhi Leonard and the LA Clippers faced off against the Cavaliers, there were plenty of fun storylines that could have been the focus. The Clippers were coming off of a hard-fought game against the Nets, could they bounce back? How will Sexton and Garland perform against one of the top Western teams?

Instead, Jared Dudley became the storyline. In his new book about the NBA bubble, Dudley had this to say:

"“We don’t trip if someone like Patrick Beverley is talking trash; that’s how he feeds his family. We get it. We respect the hustle. But we think it’s disrespectful for Paul George, who hasn’t won, to put himself on the level of Bron and AD. This motivates us.”"

As obvious as it was that Jared Dudley (0 points, 0 assists, 2 rebounds total in 31 minutes on .000/.000/.000 shooting) was playing motivated in the playoffs, it still seems like an unnecessary shot to make, especially given that this was written during the bubble.

Regardless of that, it was a shot across the bow (and yes, that is a ship pun) that, last year, could have gotten the LA Clippers off their game and prompted some comment from PG that would have been the news all week. This year? We’re looking at a different PG and a different LA Clippers. George’s response to being asked about the book was just:

"“God bless you Jared Dudley. I don’t know what it is, dudes love throwing my name in stuff. But God bless you, Jared.”"

And that was that, on to the next question. Of course, it’s easier to be more flippant about these kinds of remarks when you just had the game Paul had: 36 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds on 13 for 20 shooting and 8 for 9 from three.

George has been on fire all season (and yes, he’s going to have to prove he can keep it up in the playoffs). By basketball-reference’s GameScore statistic, this was PG’s best game of the season, but far from his only great one. It’s encouraging to see that, almost a quarter through the season, George’s play has only been getting better and better.

I’m looking for the LA Clippers to keep succeeding off of the back of Paul George, no matter what guys like Jared Dudley have to say about PG’s performance.