The championship-hungry Los Angeles Clippers have been treading water without their superstar guard in Kawhi Leonard, who underwent offseason surgery to repair a partial ACL tear suffered during the Western Conference semifinals back in June.
But the Clippers' 13-12 record and streaky tendencies haven't perturbed star swingman Paul George. The team is confident in its abilities and comfortable navigating through Leonard-less games. Of course, he wouldn't mind seeing his elite teammate return to the floor sometime in the not-so-distant future.
"Not a lot of pressure is on us. The good thing about it is, we just get to come out and play," George told the Tiki and Tierney show on Tuesday. "We all know what we're capable of, by the season we finished with last year. But through it all, we're having fun with the process. It has been a challenging season so far, with how many games we play, back-to-backs, the every other day schedule.
"But we're managing it, we're figuring it out... We want to be playing our best basketball, figuring it out for when Kawhi comes back. We want to be rolling... I can't speak on his status, but if there's an opportunity where he can return, we don't want to leave any doubts on the table that we didn't give it our all to be positioned where we want to be positioned to make a run to end this year. There's just a ton of growth we can make as a team, going down the stretch."
George, who signed a four-year, $190 million max extension with the Clippers in Dec. 2020, has naturally stepped up in Leonard's absence. With more than a quarter of the regular season completed, the 31-year-old leads the team in average points (25.0), assists (5.4), steals (1.9), and minutes played (35.9). On Monday night, George scored a team-high 21 points in a 102-90 road win over the Portland Trail Blazers.
Los Angeles, which owns the fifth-seed in the West playoff picture, will host the Boston Celtics (13-11) on Wednesday night. According to FiveThirtyEight, the Clippers are currently projected to finish 42-40 this season, and their 11-percent chance to reach the NBA Finals ranks sixth-best in the league.
The entire Clippers conversation between George and Tiki and Tierney can be accessed in the audio player above.
You can follow the Tiki and Tierney Show on Twitter @TikiAndTierney and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.