In the aftermath of arguably his worst game of the season, 76ers star Paul George shed some light on his ongoing injury battle. According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, George’s nagging hand injury has gotten bad enough to where he’s been taking shots before games just to stay on the court.
“The season started for Paul George with a hyperextension and a bone bruise. A nasty-looking injury at the time. It’s been an uphill battle for him ever since that point,” said Shams on NBA Today. “He’s had multiple different nagging injuries that have come up. Most recently, he’s had tendon damage in his left pinky that he’s been fighting. He’s been doing everything that he can to be on the court and be available. I’m told that it’s at the point where he has gotten injections to play and compete over the last four or five games. That’s something that players do come playoff time, not necessarily in the regular season.”
The 76ers signed George this summer to pair with Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. At 6’8″ with nearly 15 years of experience, George has been effective in the past as a two-way wing player who can stretch the floor. But since joining the 76ers, George has been a shell of himself and his stats show a steep decline in production.
This season, through 25 games, he’s averaging 16.1 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 4.4 assists per game on 42.6% shooting. George somehow has posted more YouTube podcast clips this season than field goals made for the 76ers. The past couple of games have been the worst stretch for George this season, especially Wednesday’s loss to the Brooklyn Nets, where he scored just 2 points on 1-7 shooting in 36 minutes.
It’s an unacceptable performance for the 9x All-Star, especially since he signed with the 76ers this summer for four years and $210 million. To make matters even worse, the 76ers’ season is over already. With Embiid and Maxey set to miss more time with injury, it’s likely the 76ers will keep dropping games and that’s a tough break considering they are 11th in the East at 20-34.
It’s clear from his play and the pre-game injections that George is not 100% healthy and it remains to be seen when/if he’ll ever return to his peak form again. As one of the most accomplished and decorated wing players in the game right now, the 76ers expected more from PG and they’ll need him to deliver a better performance going forward to have any chance in the East.
Sadly, things may have to get worse for the Sixers before they can get better. At this stage, the best path to improvement is giving George, Maxey, and Embiid enough time to get healthy so they can return toward the end of the season to make a playoff push.
The NBA play-in tournament gives the 76ers a chance to make the playoffs but without their big three at full strength, they will only go so far. Fortunately, the All-Star break is here, and the players will get a chance to rest before returning to the regular-season grind. It couldn’t have come sooner for Paul George, who will use this next week to try and get his body right for the final home stretch.
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