Despite poor shooting, Paul George says the Sixers loss to Lakers was the best he’s felt ‘being myself’
George finished with nine points on 4-for-13 shooting in the Sixers’ loss, but was encouraged by his rhythm on Friday night.
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LOS ANGELES — Paul George had far from an efficient shooting night. However, the 76ers forward was pleased with his overall performance.
“Tonight was the best I felt with being myself,” he said following Friday’s 116-106 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena. “I think I felt back to normal in terms of rhythm.
“I know shots didn’t go down. But I’m not really too concerned with that. I think more so with getting in the right spots, being able to playmake, create.”
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Those are the areas the nine-time All-Star wants to excel in. George is confident that he’ll be able to make shots.
He finished with nine points on 4-for-13 shooting, while missing all six of his three-point attempts in his third game back from a left knee bone bruise injury. He also finished with a season-high eight assists and zero turnovers. This comes after George had six and four turnovers against the Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Clippers, respectively, in his first two games back.
But the 6-foot-8, 220-pounder has struggled to make baskets in two of his three games. He scored 15 points on 4-for-14 shooting in Monday’s loss to the Phoenix Suns. George bounced back by making 7 of 9 shots to score 18 points in Wednesday’s setback to the Clippers before reverting back to a tough shooting game on Friday.
“He obviously had a tough night,” said coach Nick Nurse. “I thought he got some decent looks. I thought he had some drives. I thought he got bumped around quite a bit. … He shot two free throws. I thought he probably could have gotten to the line a few more times there.
“He passed the ball pretty good, again. I think he does create offense pretty good for other people. But again, I think he’s still a little rusty. I think he’d probably say that himself.”
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George was limited to 24 minutes, 57 seconds. He thinks he’ll be allowed to play normal minutes within a couple of games. But for now, he’s mostly on the court for six-minutes spurts before being subbed out.
“It’s challenging,” George said. “You know to get going and get subbed out and try to have to find it again. So just trying to put it all together.”