PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers welcomed Paul George back to the floor on Monday when they played host to the Los Angeles Clippers. The Sixers have not had George since March 4 as they have had to find ways to win without him, but they worked on re-integrating him in a 110-108 win over the Clippers.
In 21 minutes, George had nine points on 2-for-9 shooting with seven rebounds and three assists. He has worked hard to get back to this point and he gave an evaluation of his performance following the win.
“It felt great,” George said after the win. “It felt great to finally play basketball again. It’s been, like, eight months since I played so it was a long journey. A lot of ups and downs, a lot of hiccups, but it felt good to finally get out there. I felt good. Just rusty, but I feel good.”
It can be tough for somebody like George to step in and produce under a minutes restriction. He is a guy who is focused on letting the game come to him and it can be tough for him to find a rhythm in such short stints.
“The balance of letting the game come to you and then trying to like—I gotta, I guess, push it a little bit, just from a cardio and conditioning standpoint, but then before you know it, five minutes is up, and then getting subbed out,” George explained. “I’ve always kind of let the game come to me. I thought today, I was a little rushed trying to make the most of that five minutes every quarter. So a lot of possessions were kind of uncomfortable from just how I play, but other than that, I got to kind of do that a little bit to just get the cardio and conditioning back.”
George had returned to live action in practice in the middle of October, but it took him a bit to really get back at it at the NBA level. He had a breakthrough after meeting with the doctors and he is now hoping to build off what he was able to do against the Clippers.
“It was tough, because I finished the offseason fairly healthy, feeling good, and then I had the freak accident, and then restart,” George lamented. “Start over again, build back up, get to this point. I think the quad was just weak from being shut down for so long that was the challenge. Trying to get the left quad strong equal to the right. The breakthrough came a couple days ago, where the numbers were equal, and that was kind of the stamp to go along with how I felt on court and to be clinically clear to go out and go play.”
The Sixers will have a back-to-back starting on Wednesday against the Toronto Raptors.