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After his playoff bouts in the NBA bubble, LA Clippers goalie Paul George has said he needs to come back “with vengeance” this season to remedy the fact that “people saw weakness” in him.
A highly motivated George continued his scorching start to the season by making 8 of 14 shots and scoring 26 points to lead the Clippers to a 138-100 rout of the Sacramento Kings at the Golden 1 Center on Friday night.
“I’m coming back with a vengeance,” George said of his early season mood after he and the Clippers lost a 3-1 second-round series lead to Denver in the last playoffs. “I didn’t like, not so much the noise and all around [the way last season ended], but just the fact that people saw the weakness.
“And I had to answer that. I had to answer that. It fueled me. It put me in a place where I wanted to come back and be myself again.”
George told his teammates at the start of the season that he will return to the form that helped him finish third in the MVP vote during the 2018-19 season in Oklahoma City.
“P is playing at a high level right now,” said Clippers forward Marcus Morris Sr.. “What we all knew he would do. I feel like he has an MVP season. And he told us that before the start of the year, he was going to come with it. “
George is soaring career highs 50.3% from the field, 51.5% from 3 points and 91.8% from the free throw line. He made 4 of 8 3 points against the Kings. George has made four or more 3s in 10 of his 12 games this season.
George said he told his teammates he would return to his MVP form this season because he had no other choice.
“After the tough year last year, this was the only way I could respond,” said George. “I immediately went straight to a dark place where I had nothing but improvement. It was the only thing I was concerned about and the only thing was to improve myself.
“Almost two years after I had surgery on my shoulders. … So I’m just in a healthier state of mind, I’m in a healthier place.”
Last season, George struggled as he had just had two shoulder surgeries following the 2018-19 season. When the NBA resumed in the bubble, George suffered the worst shooting crisis he had seen in the playoffs, going 10 to 47 combined in Games 2, 3 and 4, including 21 of 25 failed attempts. behind the 3 point line. , in the first round against Dallas.
George admitted that he experienced bouts of depression and anxiety in the Orlando, Florida bubble because he was unable to be with his family and loved ones. Then the Clippers collapsed in the second round against the Nuggets.
While George and Kawhi Leonard combined to shoot just 10 in 38 and score a combined 24 points in their loss in Game 7, George was the one to take a ton of heat from the critics. His 3-point corner attempt that hit the side of the backboard in the fourth quarter symbolized the Clippers collapse.
George has not only been toasted on social media, he’s even heard trash talk this season from opponents like Phoenix’s Chris Paul and Devin Booker in a game on Jan. 3 when George and the two Suns guards have exchanged words. George said he had heard “a lot of tweets and people who just lived in the past”.
George chose to let his game do the talking, averaging 25.3 points, 6.1 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 1.3 steals to go with his best career shooting percentages.
“He was able to train this summer,” said Leonard. “Last summer he was limited, he could probably only shoot about 10 shots a day with his shoulder surgeries. He comes out with determination and he’s focused.”
“I can’t predict the future,” added Leonard if he had seen this coming when the two trained in the offseason. “But all I could say was he put his mind into his job, and when I went to work with him a lot of his stuff was like some kind of simulated game, working on the passes, reads , and it just translated. rather. “
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