Paul George is just beginning to feel like he's been the same person he used to be.
George's last absence was against Cleveland on Jan. 29, a back-to-back match, 12 days after George missed five consecutive games due to a sore right hamstring. Before that, George missed two games in December with a sore right knee and missed seven consecutive games on November 19 due to a tendon injury in his right hamstring. The Clippers' All-Star shooting guard struggled with soreness in his right knee throughout February.
But after beating the Memphis Grizzlies earlier this month to end a five-game losing streak, George announced his body was ready to play at its best.
"Just get fitter and I can, you know, play better basketball," George said after a performance of 42 points, 11 rebounds in a March 5 victory that came around after trailing by 16 points in the third quarter. "It's been hard to perform at its best for a long time. But now my body feels good. I feel like I can do something I can't do all season.
"So that's the difference. I feel good. I felt an explosion. You know, it's really just that my body is starting to get back to where it was. ”
The veteran seems to go out of his way this month to show that he still has some vitality in his 32-year-old legs. In the game against the New York Knicks, after the first quarter whistle, George passed the ball to himself during the dead ball and dunked to score. In the 19 days leading up to Tuesday's game against the Oklahoma Thunder, he had five dunks, which is two more than he had in all of February.
In the third quarter against the Thunder, George came on after a timeout and put on arguably his most impressive dunk in a halftime dunk, cutting in and spinning 360-degree dunks after receiving a pass from Mason Plumlee
But George couldn't talk about how great that dunk was, or anything at all. In the fourth quarter of the Clippers' 101-100 loss to the Thunder, Dort and George played again, this time on a throw by Shay Gildjiz-Alexander with less than five minutes left in the game, and the two sides tied at 91. George grabbed the rebound, but Dort's right leg hit George's right leg, the same right leg that caused George all sorts of trouble over the course of four months this season.
"I haven't watched the game," Kawhi Leonard said. "I thought he was just hit in the face and lay down for a while."
George fell for a while, and when he stood up, he was helped by his teammates to the locker room. Aside from his devastating compound fracture of the same leg while playing for the U.S. national team in 2014, this is probably George's most worrisome injury in the game.
"I watched the replay," Dort said after the Thunder's 101-100 win over the Clippers. "When I went up to grab the rebound, I kind of bumped into his leg. I didn't mean to, you know. It was definitely an accident. I just hope he's doing well and he'll be back for the next game. ”
The Clippers are expected to update George's status on Wednesday. If the Clippers can say that George's MRI results are good after this knee overextension, then it will be rare good luck for George and the team. Even a letter-like comeback will be a huge boost to the team. In Game 4 of the 2021 Eastern Conference Finals, the Milwaukee Bucks star overextended his left knee but returned a week later for the 2021 NBA Finals.
With nine games left in the regular season this season, the Clippers have clear short-term concerns that George could be sidelined indefinitely. The Clippers currently record 38-35 after Dort blocked Leonard's winning shot with 21.2 seconds left in the game to seal the Thunder's victory. George missed the final stage of the tournament and he finished with a game-high plus/minus of +15.
Currently the No. 5 seed in the West, the Clippers are trying to avoid playing in the playoffs, especially after a grueling experience last year. A year ago, the Clippers were the eighth seed, in part due to bad luck in 2021. Leonard has been reimbursed as he is recovering from a partial torn anterior cruciate ligament, while in the play-offs George has just recovered from a torn elbow ligament that has been absent for more than three months. But before the New Orleans Pelicans, he was suspended for health and safety protocols.
But the Clippers' concern isn't just about not playing in the playoffs. Despite all the hardships and struggles this season, they've been performing well, and the Clippers' big-picture thinking is that George and Leonard can come on and do something for the team. Los Angeles' struggles with Leonard outside the starting lineup are clear, but the playoffs aren't back-to-back.
However, every playoff game with George and Leonard has had a variety of situations. In 2020, the Clippers were reversed 3-1 in the park. In 2021, the Clippers reached the divisional finals for the first time, but none of the finals featured Leonard. In 2022, they didn't even make the playoffs.
The worst-case scenario is that George has to go through what Leonard went through, and is still going through in some ways: the recovery after surgery cost the Clippers another year to waste. This season's exhausting performances have made it clear how difficult this can be for the understaffed Clippers.
Next season should be the last and best chance for George and Leonard's team to win the title. This season, the Clippers have high expectations for themselves, hoping that with George and Leonard's cooperation over multiple seasons, the team will be closer to the end. Both George and Leonard can become free agents in 2024, and seven other Clippers players are also likely to become free agents.
But if George's injury is bad and his physical condition can't return next season, there will be conundrums about how to handle every aspect of the 2023-24 season. How realistic is it that George (who turns 33 in May) is still an offensive knife after his return? How would Leonard get through such a season? Will Lue continue to coach a team waiting for stars to return?
For now, the Clippers need to prepare for another game against the Thunder on Thursday. They were already understaffed before George's injury, as key replacement Norman Powell did not recover from a subluxation in his left shoulder for most of this month. Without George, the Clippers could start with Eric Gordon and could expand the rotation to include another wing defender, like Robert Covington, and another shot creator, like Bones Highland.
The Clippers need to win. When Leonard comes on and George isn't, the Clippers' record this season is 4-2, which helps the team a lot. Before Leonard's knee injury, the record was 18-11.
"Keep an eye on the next game," Leonard said of the situation. "I mean, we'll see. We have a group of people who still want to win and love basketball. So we'll see what happens. ”
But winning the game wasn't a matter of George's serious illness; It's whether the Clippers can get their stars into the playoffs together. Perhaps, when George will be able to return, the Clippers' twin stars can play together.