Clippers’ Paul George scores with honest analysis

Paul George can play some gorgeous basketball. He also can be pretty artful when he’s talking hoops.

The Clippers’ star kickstarted his 2021-22 season precisely where he left off last postseason, with a 29-point, 11-rebound, six-assist night. That line, well, it lines up exactly with his 29-point, 11-rebound, six-assist averages over the final eight games of the playoffs, when he stepped to the forefront after fellow All-Star Kawhi Leonard suffered a season-ending torn anterior cruciate ligament.

But, on Thursday, Steph Curry was even more spectacular, finishing with 45 points and 10 rebounds as his Warriors edged the Clippers, 115-113 at Chase Center.

Afterward, when George was asked about Curry’s performance, he applauded it. And not in begrudging platitudes, but with an aficionado’s appreciation.

“He’s so good, he’s just the complete package offensively,” George said, via Zoom. “So good at shooting the 3, but just so good at getting open for layups. He’s mastered how to get free without dribbling a ball.

“He’s just so elusive and quick it’s hard to – one second you look away and he’s gone or you’re not attached to him, he’s gone. It just takes, honestly, a whole five players to just have an awareness of where he’s at, because one step and he’s out of there.

“And he shoots it so quick you can’t allow him to get free. So that’s just what it is when he gets going like that, you got to just crowd him and try to force him to play into his body. You got to try to wear him out. We didn’t do it well enough tonight, but again, it’s just good things to take with us.”

Last season, George raved in similar detail about another difficult-to-defend guard: Memphis’ Ja Morant.

“He’s just fun to watch,” George said after the Clippers got blown out by the Grizzlies in February, in a game in which Morant scored 16 points and dished seven assists.

“There’s no other explanation for it, Ja’s just fun to watch. He’s so athletic and so gifted, he’s so agile. I mean, I could compare him to like Derrick Rose, with his explosiveness and ability to just shift his body, move his body in the air. You gotta compare it to someone like D-Rose.

“He just makes highlight plays after highlight plays. And just makes it look easy out on there on the court.”

It so happens that in their home opener Saturday, the Clippers will face Morant and his Grizzlies, who come roaring into Staples Center after a 132-121 season-opening win against Cleveland. Morant scored 37 points in 34 minutes in that one, a sensational springboard into his third NBA season.

George doesn’t always speak so glowingly, of course.

Asked about the Phoenix Suns in April, George was blunt: “I don’t care who they are or what they’re doing.” About Bruce Brown, the Brooklyn Nets’ forward who irritated George in a meeting in February: “Just got to watch a dude that can’t shoot cut all game. We got to just find where he’s at … he won’t be a problem.”

About irksome officiating?

After a loss in Dallas, George aired his grievances with his perceived missed calls: “It’s insane that we’re not getting these calls,” and the NBA fined him $35,000 for saying so.

Still, George again proved plenty articulate on the topic when it arose Thursday night.

“Draymond (Green) got nine of them (free-throw attempts), so honestly, I don’t know what he did that I wasn’t doing,” George said after the loss, in which he shot no free throws despite driving into the paint 16 times, per nba.com/stats, and going 5 for 7 at the rim – compared, for what it’s worth, with Green going 3 for 3 from close range on three drives.

“Honestly, I don’t know what he did that I wasn’t doing,” continued George, who was assessed a technical foul for complaining about a no-call. “I drove the ball more than he did to the paint, took more contact than him going into the paint. I don’t know how he gets awarded with nine of them.

“It’s just crazy, like you get T’d up, I’m getting hit in the face, smacked in the face. I shot a 3, I get smacked on the elbow. That is just crazy to me, but it’s nothing new, it’s nothing new. I just got to do a better job of staying within the game. It is what it is, they’re going to do what they do.”

And by George, the Clippers’ leading man is going to call it like he sees it.

GRIZZLIES (1-0) at CLIPPERS (0-1)

When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Staples Center

TV: Bally Sports SoCal