Getty Paul George, Clippers
Clippers forward Paul George struggled in his return to the lineup on Thursday night in a loss to Denver, after having missed the two previous games with what was termed a right foot injury. George was 5-for-15 from the floor with 17 points, adding just 2-for-7 shooting from the 3-point line.
That was rough enough on its own. But after the game, George revealed that the reason he had sat out two games previously was the return of the bone edema in his second right toe that had bothered him throughout February and forced him to miss seven games.
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“There’s no pop on the right foot because I can’t really bend my toe and have that flexion all the way on that second toe,” George said in his postgame comments. “It’s figuring out, I gotta figure it out. Most importantly is if I can play and play with minimal pain, that’s what I am going for. We gotta figure it out, though.”
Indeed, George and the Clippers do need to figure it out. Before the edema began affecting him in February, George was scorching. In his first 20 games of the season, he averaged 24.4 points, shooting 50.8% from the field and 47.8% from the 3-point line.
In 17 games since then: 19.9 points, 42.6% shooting, 35.0% 3-point shooting.
Blown Layup Gets ‘Pandemic P’ Trending Again
The injury showed up prominently during the Nuggets game, as George took some social media flak for utterly blowing a layup. In the second quarter of the game, with just eight minutes to play, the Clippers had an easy fast-break opportunity, with George attacking alongside Nic Batum and only 5-foot-10 Nuggets guard Facundo Campazzo defending.
George went up to the rim past Campazzo but rolled the ball off the rim. A follow-up was missed by Batum, and the Nuggets grabbed the rebound.
Online, of course, observers piled on, dusting off George’s old sarcastic nickname—Pandemic P, a play on Playoff P, the nickname he once gave himself for the way he raises his game in the postseason. In last year’s playoffs, George had some brutal outings, and though he averaged 20.2 points, he shot only 39.8% from the field.
When Paul George see Pandemic P
Paul George Searching for Answers on Toe Injury
Of course, for George and the Clippers, the toe injury is no joke. The team needs him to be as close to 100% as he can get, and he has shown he is going to struggle when he is dealing with physical discomfort. The Clippers had been playing well, even without George, winning six straight before dropping their last two games.
What is frustrating for George is that there just do not seem to be any answers. There’s no real treatment for bone edema other than rest and healing, but George tried that in February, and the condition flared back up. Do the Clippers need to shut down George for a while? Is there a way he can find to deal with the pain?
He addressed that:
You just play through what you can and what you can’t, you gotta be smart about. If it was my way, I would be on the court playing all of the games. But, you know, some days it’s more sore than others so you just look ahead and plan ahead.
We’re trying to figure it out now, honestly, we’re trying to get on top of it now. It hasn’t seemed to go away yet but at this point it’s just managing the soreness and the swelling.
That has not worked, however. Not yet, at least.