Despite another valiant effort, Paul George and the LA Clippers dropped their second game of the season to Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies, 120-114. The game featured double-digit leads for both teams, but a third quarter scoring drought for the Clippers allowed the Grizzlies to build a 16-point lead they would never relinquish.

Paul George scored a game-high 41 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, following up his opening night 36-point, 11-rebound performance. Unfortunately, Morant had a monster night himself with 28 points and eight assists on 10-of-19 shooting. The Grizzlies guard spent all night carving through the Clippers defense and getting to the basket at will.

Ja Morant's performance was reminiscent of a former MVP winner, says Paul George.

“I’d compare him to like D-Rose,” Paul George said. “I guarded him my rookie year, the Indy-Chicago games, and guarding Ja is very similar to how D-Rose was. It was just how quick and his ability to change direction, move his body in-air. He made it tough for us. He put a lot of pressure on us.”

Morant shot 8-of-12 inside the painted area, doing the bulk of his damage in the third quarter.

“He’s just explosive. He’s explosive. You know the direction he wants to go. He wants to go left, we knew that, but he’s just so good and so fast, he still gets to it. He’s just explosive, electrifying.”

The Clippers did a good job trying to hold Morant in check in the fourth quarter, sending repeated traps at the top of the key to get the ball out of his hands and make his teammates make plays. Desmond Bane's baseline jumper gave Memphis a cushion, and Jaren Jackson Jr.'s wing three-pointer was the dagger.

“His guys made shots,” Paul George added. “The plan was to get the ball out of Ja’s hands and make somebody else make plays. It just so happens that they made plays, but that was the plan. We wanted to get the ball out of his hands.”

After starting every playoff series in 2021 down 0-2, the Clippers are off to yet another 0-2 start. This one, however, won't be a best of seven, as there's a whole lot of basketball still left to be played.

The Clippers' next test comes against Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night. Paul George will take his NBA-leading 35 points per game on 56.3 percent shooting into Staples Center to try and get the Clippers their first win of the season.

“It comes to a point where, yeah I’m happy we fought, but that can’t be who we are. Just be happy that we played hard. We gotta come in, we gotta do our job, we gotta win games. With that though, we have to play hard, and so I know it was a moral victory in Golden State, but tonight, we gotta do a better job. We gotta come out first, establish who we are. Playing hard should be a given. We gotta win games.”