Playing in front of a hostile crowd that has taunted his every move, George delivered a superstar performance with 37 points, a playoff career-high 16 rebounds and five assists in leading the Clippers to a 119-111 win over the Utah Jazz in a pivotal Game 5 before 18,007 at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City.
And he helped the Clippers do it without Leonard, the team’s best player.
But you know, at the end of the day, we don’t want nothing but the best for Kawhi.
In front of a crowd that has no love for him dating back to that 2018 first-round series between the Thunder and Jazz, George came out aggressive and remained that way even when Utah threatened to bury the Clippers under an avalanche of 3-pointers.
“He’s incredible,” said point guard Reggie Jackson, who hit numerous big shots when the Clippers needed them and finished with 22 points.
“He was ready to put the team on his back to carry extra weight, and he showed up and proved why he’s one of the best players in this league and why he’s been incredible for us when we had him for the entire season.
George drew heat as well for struggling with his shot in the bubble last postseason, culminating in Game 7, when he shot 4-of-16 for 10 points.
Like I know a lot of great players that have bad series or a bad game or a bad two games in a series, but whenever he has a bad game, they want to make a big deal of it.
Utah’s scorching shooting finally cooled off in the third quarter, but the Jazz made a final run and cut a 10-point deficit to 110-106 with two minutes remaining.
George shot 12-of-22 overall, with just one of his field goal attempts going uncontested, according to data from ESPN Stats & Information.
It was just that mindset being back in Indy, having to set the tone and come out and lead a ballclub.
I just dug into a place that I’ve been already in my career, and it just came down to trust.