TIME TO SHINE
Paul George gets another MVP showcase game Saturday, this time against Houston's James Harden
Descriptions of Paul George have evolved from what he can do to what he's become.
No longer is George a guy who scores. George is a ball going through a hoop.
“Oh, he's a bucket,” Thunder guard Terrance Ferguson said Thursday. “It don't matter if he starts slow or fast, he's a bucket no matter what.”
If George is a bucket, James Harden is, too. But no two buckets are made the same way.
On Saturday, buckets collide in Houston when George faces off against fellow Most Valuable Player candidate Harden in a contrast of styles that both produce the NBA's greatest currency.
George and the Thunder have already won one Most Valuable Player showdown this season against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks. When the Thunder and Rockets clash Saturday night (7:30, ABC), it will be not only to break a 1-1 series tie this season between the teams, but to add another footnote to an MVP candidacy.
“Yeah, I'm looking forward to the matchup, as I'm sure he is as well,” George said after the Thunder's win Thursday against Memphis, OKC's ninth in 10 games. “It's always fun going against James.
“I won't give details, but I'll be ready Saturday though.”
Harden will be ready, too, on a streak of 28 consecutive games of 30 points or more – the longest such streak since 1962 (Wilt Chamberlain).
George and Harden are accomplishing their All-NBA caliber seasons in different ways – George's offense coming in flow-of-thegame scoring binges, Harden
coming as the high-usage, highly efficient center of the Rockets' universe.
George's 28 points per game this season have occasionally been streaky and sneaky. On Thursday against the Grizzlies, George started 4-of-11 from the field, then exploded to start the fourth quarter.
Six points came from George's catch-and-shoot 3-pointers – one in which he set a screen before popping out above the 3-point line, another he flicked without hesitation in transition.
Suddenly, it was an 11-0 Thunder run.
Suddenly, George's shooting splits looked a lot more efficient.
“It ain't surprising at all,” Ferguson said of how George's percentages can shift so quickly. “Once that first ball goes inside the net, it's over for them the rest of the night.
“Whether he starts slow or it's a quick start, that ball's going through the net.”
Part of why George has been so good is because Russell Westbrook is having his best passing season ever. Of George's 225 baskets that have been assisted, Westbrook has set up 115 (51.1 percent). But George has also scored 266 unassisted baskets, a fairly even distribution of “getting buckets” which contrasts Harden's methodology.
The former Thunder guard has been a one-man wrecking crew in Houston, scoring 88.1 percent of his field goals unassisted en route to a league-high 36.5 points per game. Some of it was due to the absence of Chris Paul to a hamstring injury for 17 consecutive games, but it's mostly just Harden's uniquely efficient one-on-one style.
While George is shooting a ridiculous 41.3 percent on off-the-dribble 3-pointers this season, unlike Harden's reliance in one-on-ones, the isolation game is often where George can heat check himself.
“The only time I really get into trouble struggle-wise is when I force it trying to be too aggressive instead of letting plays develop,” George said. “I can just tell when I maybe broke a play off or I've started to get into the offense and I over dribble.
“A lot of times when it's random attacks and I can get a quick look off one movement, that's where I'm at my best, when it's just a quick move and I'm into my shot, or a quick pick-and-roll and I'm downhill. That's usually where my rhythm is at its best.”
The two represent a contrast of rhythms: George's quick-release runs of offense come off a pass or on his own. Harden's blasts are birthed from near-unstoppable stepbacks and solo missions.
Both are setting the NBA on fire.