The LA Clippers needed Paul George to be better this year. Paul George needed to be better this year. The team came in with championship aspirations and a freshly re-signed George on their roster.
PG came out firing and proving himself to start the season. However, an injury to his toe set him back, taking him out of several games and leading to less than stellar play. Since then, however, George has been excellent.
Paul George’s excellent play is proving doubters of both him and the LA Clippers wrong.
For the season, George is averaging the second-highest scoring total of his career, behind only the season that he finished third in MVP voting. He’s also averaging a career-high in assists, the biggest improvement in his game.
As of late though, he has been so much more impressive. In seven of his last eight appearances, PG has scored 30 plus points. This has come at an important time in the schedule when the Clippers can gain some ground on the second seed in the conference while also being without several key rotational players.
He’s doing it on both ends of the court and even pulled down a season-high 14 rebounds in Friday night’s win over the Houston Rockets.
Of course, PG will need to continue to do this. We can talk all about how X player on the Clippers should be getting more minutes than Y but the truth is everything comes down to the superstars.
The team will only go as far as Paul George and Kawhi Leonard take them. If George can continue to play at this level when the postseason begins in just a few short weeks, the team will be in a great position.
As the LA Clippers continue to get guys back on the court over the next few weeks, we’ll see if PG can still replicate these numbers. W know he’s skilled enough and should continue to prove his doubters wrong as he has all season.