Paul George has been massively disappointing for the Los Angeles Clippers in their first-round series against the Dallas Mavericks. Back in 2018 before the Oklahoma City Thunder played their first playoff game against the Utah Jazz, George gave himself the nickname ‘Playoff P’ by stating, “Ya’ll ain't met Playoff P yet, huh?” The Thunder went on to lose to rookie Donovan Mitchell and the Jazz in 6 games.

Now, the Clippers are tied with the Mavericks 2-2 in their first-round series and George is averaging just 11.3 points and shooting 21.3% from the field over the last three games of the series.

After every game George has been seen icing his shoulder, but the hosts of the Locked On Clippers Podcast, Charles Mockler and William Updyke, don’t believe George’s struggles can be blamed solely on injuries.

William Updyke: I think we’ve all seen the ice on [George's] shoulder post game, I think deep down, given some of his performances we’ve worried that it’s a physical thing.

I’m going to tell you, I don’t think it is. If you look at his playoff numbers from last year when he had a whole a** Torn Labrum. He was still averaging 28 points per game on much better splits. I do not think it’s an injury thing…

It’s not an injury, it’s all confidence. And I think that we as a team need to help bring that confidence up. Guys have said that they’re talking to him, they trust Paul…

It’s not going to help to have him standing in the corner and having catch and shoot threes. His only field goals on Sunday [Game 4] were unassisted. He needs to have some time with the ball in his hands. His usage was really, really low… only 16% of offensive possessions.

Here’s the other thing: If all else fails, if he still can’t get a bucket inside the paint to save his life, we need him to be a great defender.

He was not great on defense in the last game, he allowed a worse defensive field-goal percentage than Lou-Will. Some of these moments were against second string Mavs… He was definitely in his own head. 50% of his defensive time was split between Seth Curry and Trey Burke.

Charles Mockler: Seth Curry gave him work. Called him ‘b**** a**' I’m pretty sure at one point. There’s a clip of it.

William: Opponents shot 63% against him, which is rough. And the only players that were worse on defense were Montrezl Harrell and Reggie Jackson. So please Paul George, we need you to play some good defense, if nothing else can go right for you.

We’ll see if Paul George can finally breakout of this slump or if his struggles will continue. The Clippers face the Mavericks on Tuesday night for Game 5 and Game 6 is set for Thursday, August 27th.