OKC Thunder grades: Russell Westbrook magnificent as he rocks Nets to sleep

Paul George had his shoulder taped up with the special Kinesio tape in almost every direction with the early takeaway being perhaps he shouldn’t be playing. That was at least in terms of his first half where his shot looked like it was being affected by his shoulder.

It was clear he’s not going to be the primary scorer (at least not early in games) and it’s hard not to believe the shoulder is the key reason why. On several plays I noticed him passing up shot attempts which begged the question — does it hurt for him to shoot?

Like most of his teammates, he struggled in the first half shooting 4 of 10 from the field along with three rebounds and a single assist. In the second half, he was much more aggressive in all aspects of the game. Given his shoulder and Russ having everything rolling he wasn’t forcing anything but his numbers at the game end were much more reflective of his norm.

Although he was stellar defensively the other note on PG’s shoulder is he wasn’t closing out on perimeter shooting like he typically does. This again may be due to the shoulder and a reluctance to hit another player and end up aggravating the injury.

George finished with 25 points on 9 of 18 shooting, shot 50 percent from deep (3 of 6), along with 9 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks.