National Basketball Association

The Return of 'Playoff P'

Published Aug. 20, 2020 3:34 p.m. ET

The Los Angeles Clippers never led in Wednesday's loss to the Dallas Mavericks, and the Western Conference first round series is now tied, 1-1.

And after the game, most pundits and fans were looking directly at Paul George as the main reason why, after George scored just 14 points on 4-for-17 shooting, going 2-for-10 from three.

George has long established himself as one of the premiere wings in the NBA. In his 10 NBA seasons, he is a 6-time All-Star and was named to the All-NBA First Team in 2019.

In 2014 and 2019, he was an NBA All-Defensive First Team performer, and he led the league in steals last season.

However, while George has made a habit of being one of the regular season's most prolific performers, postseason success has often escaped PG-13, dating back to 2013.

In the 2013 playoffs, George led the Indiana Pacers to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they matched up with LeBron James and the Miami Heat.

Through the first six games, George averaged 21.5 points, but in Game 7, he scored just 7 points on 2-for-9 shooting.

The next season, George and the Pacers once again faced off with James and the Heat in the East finals, and George averaged 24.0 points in the series, including a 37-point outburst in a Game 5 win.

However, after winning Game 1 by 11, the Pacers went on to lose four of the next five games by an average of 13.3 points, highlighted by a 25-point loss in Game 6.

Since then, George has made the playoffs every year from 2015-2020, but from 2015-2019, his teams have not made it out of the first round, despite George averaging 27.2 points in those four series losses.

Now, the Clippers appear to be in a dogfight with the Mavericks in the first round of this year's playoffs, and on Wednesday, George credited his poor shooting to a few extenuating circumstances.

On Thursday morning, Colin Cowherd wasn't buying it.

"Paul George was bad. Paul George is not a superstar. He has bad playoff games all the time."

George's playoff history is indeed up and down. Take last season for example.

In Oklahoma City's first round matchup with Portland, George put up 26, 27, 22, 32 and 36 points in consecutive games.

However, the Thunder lost in five games and George shot 8-for-24 in Game 1 (33%), 3-for-16 in Game 3 (19%), and 8-for-21 in Game 4 (38%).

The year prior, in OKC's first round series loss to the Utah Jazz, George was phenomenal in Game 1 and Game 4 wins, scoring 36 and 34, respectively, including 8 threes in Game 1.

But in the Thunder's four losses that series, George shot just 32% from the field, including scoring 5 points on 2-for-16 shooting in Game 6, the final game of the series.

George is certainly on the hot seat after Wednesday, with Game 3 set for Friday.

We'll see which version of 'Playoff P' makes an appearance.