The Los Angeles Clippers now look the part of a contending team, which is quite the transformation after they lost six straight games in the immediate aftermath of their trade for James Harden. However, Paul George, who's been on the wrong end of a few playoff heartbreaks in the past, knows better than to be complacent. Even with the Clippers on a roll, as evidenced by their 138-111 demolition of the Phoenix Suns on the second night of a back-to-back, George knows that there is plenty of room for them to improve.
In particular, George thinks that the Clippers must have a greater killer instinct; when they take leads, the veteran forward wants the Clippers not to give their opponents any sort of invitation to come back into the game.
“We’ll have moments of going up big, and not being able to put teams away. You talk about the teams that have won it and teams that are serious contenders when they go up big, it’s over,” the Clippers star said on the most recent episode of the Podcast P with Paul George presented by Wave Sports + Entertainment.
“We give teams that life that they can come back and make it a game again.”
This has been a painful reality for the Clippers, even during the Kawhi Leonard-Paul George era. They take leads, only for them to slip away. This was the case when they took a 3-1 lead during the second round of the 2020 NBA playoffs against the Denver Nuggets, which is arguably still the most embarrassing playoff meltdown of all time.
Nonetheless, George is seeing improvements in the veteran Clippers squad. While he contends that the team can still do a better job of cleaning up the glass, with Ivica Zubac doing the lion's share of work in that regard, he is, slowly but surely, seeing them seal the game much earlier, as evidenced by their beatdown of the New Orleans Pelicans this past Friday.
“I think saw a great version of that…in New Orleans We went up big, we solidified that…we shut the door on the game, that game’s over with,” George added.