UnflappaPaul
Paul George has been booed before, but this time went much better than the last.
LOS ANGELES — The mere mention of his name elicited boos, a discordant backdrop to the handclapping and hopping of Paul George’s lineup announcement routine.
No, this wasn’t at Staples Center on Wednesday. This was Bankers Life Fieldhouse last season.
“I thought I handled it better tonight,” George said after the Thunder’s 107-100 win over the Lakers on Wednesday, “given I’ve been in that situation before in Indy now. I handled it better tonight with just being locked in, being ready. In Indy, I expected to be booed, but I didn’t know to what extent. Here, I knew coming into the situation what it was going to be like.”
His statistics told the same story. In his first trip
back to Indiana since the Pacers traded him to the Thunder ahead of last season, George shot just 3-of14 from the field, scoring 12 points. On Wednesday, George paced the Thunder
with 37 points.
The Pacers fans’ boos last season had more history behind them than the Lakers fans’ Wednesday.
They were fueled by the heartbreak of a fan base that had called George its own for seven years, only to read reports in 2017 that he planned to leave in free agency and wanted to go to the Lakers. Famously, even fans wearing his Pacers jersey made their disappointment known.
For the first quarter of Wednesday night’s game at Staples Center, it looked like George’s performance might be as unremarkable as his first back in Indiana had been. Lakers fans booed in response to George’s choice to stay in Oklahoma City rather than leave for L.A. as they had expected.
George picked up three fouls and scored just four points.
When he returned in the second quarter, things changed.
“I thought he did a good job of just staying focused,” Thunder guard Russell Westbrook said when asked what he did to help George find his rhythm. “You know, making the game easy for him, getting him open looks in
transition, and he stayed the course throughout the game.”
George shot 6-of-9 from the field in the second quarter and either scored or assisted on five of the Thunder’s last six buckets of the game.
“I just stayed aggressive regardless of foul trouble in the first,” George said. “I just wanted to play ball tonight. I wanted to play
some ball tonight, and that’s what I did. I wasn’t going to let those officials sit me out tonight.”
George and the Thunder have talked all season about the difference a year has made in the group’s comfort level. Sometimes it’s brought up so often that "comfort" begins to sound like a meaningless buzz word.
But as George slammed down a dunk late in the fourth quarter, stomping and yelling in celebration, he did look comfortable. Not only with Westbrook, who had thrown him the lob, but also with being the villain for a night.
“It was fun,” George said of playing to a soundtrack of boos. “I look forward to the second time this season where I get booed, and that’s in the Midwest.”