LOS ANGELES — The question got in under the gun, a final inquiry for Paul George before he wrapped up a postgame media scrum at Staples Center on Friday.
“You’re an L.A. guy,” the question came. “You curious about tomorrow night and the reception?”
That would be Saturday’s home opener for the Lakers and LeBron James, the city’s hottest basketball ticket. Oklahoma City’s 108-92 loss to the Clippers on Friday didn’t rate in the same stratosphere.
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As it happens, no, George wasn’t particularly curious.
“I’m a Thunder,” he said with an affirming little nod, and he said nothing else.
This summer, George opted to stay in Oklahoma City rather than pursue a dream of coming home. He’s from Palmdale, Calif., in Los Angeles County, and the Lakers had the money to sway him.
Instead, he stayed put.
There’s emotion tied up in that decision, but not much of it was on display Friday. Some boos rained down as George was introduced before the game, but there were loud cheers, too. The scene figures to be different, the disdain more focused, when George returns to play the Lakers for the first time.
But against the Clippers, George was just an NBA star trying — and, frustratingly, failing — to make his team click.
The Thunder lacked consistency all last season and have preached finding it since training camp opened. It was absent again at Staples Center. The Thunder fell behind 16-0 on Friday, fought their way back to lead by as many as nine points and then imploded in the fourth quarter.
L.A. outscored OKC 37-15 in the fourth. The Clippers closed the final nine minutes of the game on a 30-7 run.
It’s the season’s second game, and 2017 MVP Russell Westbrook hasn’t played in either of them. The Thunder still are finding themselves as a team. But too often on Friday they looked lost, looked like the team last season that struggled to play to an identity even as it insisted there was time to find one.
“I think our offense did not help our defense at all tonight,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. “It did not. We did nothing to help our defense. We were way too easy to guard. The ball was never moved.”
Instead, George and Dennis Schröder mostly probed with the dribble and looked for isolation opportunities. George went 1 for 6 from the floor in the fourth and 7 for 27 in the game. Schröder missed all five of his fourth-quarter shots and shot 2 for 15 in 30 minutes overall.
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Through two games, Oklahoma City (0-2) is shooting a league-worst 36 percent from the floor. George is 16 of 50 (32 percent) and 7 of 23 (30.4 percent) from 3-point range.
Those numbers figure to improve once Westbrook returns. George shot 43.7 percent from the floor and 41.4 percent from 3-point range last season with Westbrook on the court, numbers that dipped to 40.9 and 35.7 without him.
And Westbrook likely will be back soon.
It seemed for a time like the point guard — recovering from a September arthroscopic surgery on his right knee — might make his debut against the Clippers. He went through the team’s morning shootaround at UCLA, on the practice court that bears his name, then stuck around after for what looked like an intense workout.
But based on the feedback Westbrook gave the Thunder medical staff, he wasn’t ready to play Friday. He sat on the bench with a coat over no shirt, then put one on at halftime, doing his best to coach from the sideline.
The Thunder won’t practice Saturday, using it as a travel day back to Oklahoma City. With a 6 p.m. start on Sunday against the Kings, they’ll eschew the traditional morning shootaround in favor of an afternoon walkthrough. If Westbrook feels up to it after that, he might return to play Sacramento. If not, the Thunder will keep trying to find out what they are in his absence.
Even in a loss at Golden State on Tuesday, there were encouraging signs. Friday was a reminder that life is harder without the triple-double machine than it is with him. The Thunder get better shots with Westbrook on the court, in part because he generates some of them for himself.
“He’s missed everywhere,” backup point guard Raymond Felton said. “He’s the head of our offense. He’s the head of our defense. He’s an aggressor.”
In his stead, George is trying to take on a leadership role.
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It’s one he rarely needed to assume a season ago. He wasn’t fully settled. There was no guarantee he wouldn’t be a one-and-done, off to Los Angeles at season’s end.
He stayed in OKC, and now his second season is off to a rocky start. It’s fair to wonder if the Thunder have enough shooting, if they can adapt to a ball- and player-movement system that Donovan favors. It’s fair, too, to withhold judgment until OKC logs some games with Westbrook in the lineup.
For now, the Thunder’s consistency issues linger, and on Friday George was part of the problem. But he’s settled in now, focused on helping find solutions.
“It’s no panic,” George said. “We’ve got one of the best players coming back to our team at some point. But I take a lot of pressure on that. I still got to get this group ready to go. I got to get this group ready to win games regardless if Russ is out there or Russ is not.”
(Photo by Gary A. Vasquez / USA Today)