Clippers' Paul George Admits He Wasn't 'Efficient' Enough in Playoff Loss to Mavs

Los Angeles Clippers star Paul George lamented his performance in the team's first-round exit from the 2024 NBA playoffs in the newest episode of his podcast.

On Podcast P, presented by Wave Sports + Entertainment, George looked back on the series against the Dallas Mavericks and said he should've been "a little bit more efficient and taking it for what it was."

"Their plan was to get the ball out of my hands and show extra bodies, which in Game 3 I thought I made the adjustment going into Game 4 to be more aggressive to score," he said. "Then as I got going and started scoring in Game 5, the adjustment was to try and wear me down, show extra bodies, force the ball out of my hands. They were packing the paint and I should have saw that earlier—let me just bait them and free up shots for teammates.

"When you have a rough game, you don't play well, your natural follow-up to that is to be more aggressive, which I was playing right into their hands at that point… So I'm like Game 6, I got to be more aggressive to score, which wasn't the answer. So I mean hindsight you think about those things, but it's a game. It's the reason why it's a game. You play the game to win and sometimes you're on the opposite end of it,"

George averaged 19.5 points on 41.1 percent shooting, including 36.7 percent on threes, in the six games with Dallas. In Los Angeles' pivotal Game 6 loss, he went 6-of-18 from the field for 18 points, and to his assertion, it probably was a case of trying to do too much. Ten of his shot attempts were from long range.

Of course, singling out the nine-time All-Star would be a little unfair. One reason the Mavs could focus so much of their defensive efforts on George was because they didn't have to worry about Kawhi Leonard. Knee trouble limited Leonard to two games in the opening round and he was clearly at less than 100 percent for the 59 minutes he played.

Even if George had shot the ball more efficiently, it may not have been enough to save the short-handed Clippers.