Paul George: Clippers' 51-Point Loss to Mavericks Is 'Not That Big of a Deal'

The Dallas Mavericks absolutely smashed the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday, 124-73, but Paul George wasn't sweating the blowout.

"It's not that big of a deal," he told reporters. "We got our butts whipped today, but it's one day. We wasn't ready today. We wasn't prepared. That's on me. So, we'll be ready for the next game."

George took responsibility for the loss, adding that spending the Christmas holiday on the road may have contributed to the poor performance:

In the grand scheme of things, a loss in the third game of a 72-game season doesn't matter much, especially with the Clippers coming off wins over the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets to start the season.

But because the Clippers were considered title front-runners by many last season after the additions of George and Kawhi Leonard—and blew a 3-1 lead to the Nuggets in the Western Conference Semifinals—any poor performance is going to go under the microscope.

And Sunday's showing was historically poor:

To the Clippers credit, Leonard didn't play in the contest. It's unlikely it would have mattered given how poorly the team performed, however. Head coach Tyronn Lue told reporters after the game that the Clippers "didn't have a lot of pop" on offense or defense.

Talk about an understatement. Not surprisingly, more than a few folks were astonished by the beatdown:

The thing about losses is that they all count the same in the standings, whether by 50 or five points. George and the Clippers have to rebound after such a lackluster showing—it's not the sort of effort they can deem acceptable—but obsessing over it doesn't make much sense, either.

That seemed to be the message George was conveying Sunday.