The picture that is forming of the Los Angeles Clippers’ internal chemistry after their playoff collapse is not a pretty one.
According to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, Paul George and Montrezl Harrell got into a verbal confrontation during a timeout in Game 2 that saw Harrell call out George. It was a key incident that demonstrated that Clippers players were never quite on the same page.
George committed two turnovers in less than a minute in that game. The second was a careless half-court pass to Harrell, who was surrounded in the paint. On the way to the huddle during a timeout, Harrell approached George about the pass, but George blamed Harrell and said the pass could have been caught had the big man made the right play.
That infuriated Harrell, who called out George by saying something similar to “you’re always right. Nobody can tell you nothing.” A heated argument followed with both players using expletives, and Harrell did not calm down even after George backed off a bit.
George in particular seemed to respond to the Clippers’ predicament differently than many of his teammates. His comments after Game 7 were, according to Haynes, not shared by the rest of the Clippers. George also continued his brutal record in elimination games with a 10-point performance in the decisive Game 7.
Perhaps things will be better for the Clippers in year two of the George-Kawhi Leonard era. Maybe they’ll have addressed the issues that need to be fixed. It’s a big worry, however, and it’s far from the only issue this team faces.
