If the LA Clippers are going to make a push for a playoff spot, with or without Kawhi Leonard, Paul George is going to need some help.

The Clippers dropped their fourth game in five contests on Friday night to the Portland Trail Blazers, 111-92. The game featured another spectacular performance by George, who finished with a season-high 42 points. It was his second 40+ point game of the season and 18th of his career, but it wasn't enough to get the Clippers a road win over the Blazers.

To put it bluntly, the Clippers are struggling. The shots that were going down for them all of last year are not going down at the moment. Their starting lineup hasn't played well at times and their second unit isn't doing them any favors. The team is without Marcus Morris, Serge Ibaka, as well as Kawhi Leonard for the foreseeable future, and their plans not to overwork Paul George early in the season haven't necessarily gone according to plan.

George is currently averaging 33.1 minutes per game for the Clippers, which isn't too bad. He also third in the league in usage rate at 33.2 percent behind only Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bradley Beal. When he's out there, George is the primary offensive weapon for the Clippers, and on Friday night, he received little-to-no help outside of a mini scoring burst from Luke Kennard.

George had 42 of the Clippers 83 points in the minutes prior to the final three minutes of garbage time. He finished his efficient shooting night at 15-of-24 from the field and 6-of-9 from beyond the arc.

“He was getting good shots and he was aggressive early,” head coach Tyronn Lue said of Paul George. “Made some shots early as well. But he also made the right play, the right pass as well, but we can't wear him down, expecting him to get 40 every night for us to be in the game. So we just got to do a better job of being able to help him out.”

George's nine other teammates combined for 41 points on 15-of-58 shooting before garbage time. Luke Kennard was the only other Clipper in double-figure scoring with 16 points, but even he struggles scrapping for points against Portland at just 6-of-15 shooting.

“I mean, I thought our guys made the right plays and we're just not making shots,” Lue added. “Started out 6-for-6 and then at halftime we were like 3-of-18 or something like that. Gotta continue to just keep taking good shots, I like our defense, I thought we were really aggressive, thought we were active until Dame got hot in the last six minutes of the fourth, but overall we did some good things.”

“It's my job.” Paul George responded when asked how he feels about carrying the scoring load again.

“I'm gonna be confident. It's gotta start with me, and hopefully the confidence I have in myself, my teammates have confidence. That's my job, it's to keep everybody lifted up, keep their spirits high, and keep their energy high.”

The Clippers are tied for seventh in the league in defensive rating at 102.3 points per 100 possessions, Their defense hasn't been the problem, as displayed by the Clippers holding the third worst offensive rating in the league at 100.4 points per 100 possessions.

The team that shot a combined 42.8 percent on open and wide open three-pointers last season also generated the most open and wide open shots in the league. This season, the Clippers are shooting a combined 32.8 percent on those same shots through the first five games, per NBA.com/Stats, despite being in the top 10 in open and wide open shots generated this season.

“Overall, I thought we got some good shots,” said Lue as he continued to sift through the final box score. “When you got good scorers, of course they’re going to take a couple tough shots, hard shots, just like every other team does. But for the most part I thought we did a good job of trying to make the right play, make it and we didn't make shots after those first six.”

Reggie Jackson is shooting 31.3 percent from the field and making 29.2 percent of his threes.

Eric Bledsoe is shooting 37.5 percent from the field and made 18.8 percent of his threes.

Nicolas Batum is shooting 35.7 percent from the field and 21.1 percent of from three.

Terance Mann hasn't taken the leaps forward that everyone expected him to, and his role being entirely undefined on a night-to-night basis hasn't helped.

So five games down, a couple of close losses, a pair of double-digit losses, and a blowout victory at home about summarizes the Clippers season. Where do they go from here?

“Just stay the course,” Lue said. “We have a group that's gonna do that. We understand we're trying to figure out just the process, just offensively and defensively what we're looking for, rotations, and guys have been playing hard and competing, so I can't fault that, so, like I said, I gotta do a better job just to make sure that we're putting our guys in position to be successful, and so just gotta keep plugging away until I do that.”

The head of the Clippers snake, Paul George, believes there's nothing to worry about as his team enjoys a pair of days off before the start of a four-game week.

“I think we're good,” said George of the team's 1-4 record. “I think we're in a good position, we just gotta get better.”