Thunder forward Paul George will not play Thursday night against the Philadelphia 76ers due to right shoulder soreness, the team announced.
The news is a bit surprising since there hasn’t been much discussion about a possible injury but it could explain why George has struggled to shoot from the field recently.
Since George scored 45 points against the Utah Jazz on Friday, he scored just 14 points against the Sacramento Kings and 25 points against the Denver Nuggets. He shot a combined 26 percent (11-of-43) from the field in those two games, including 22 percent (5-of-23) from 3-point range.
George will miss just his second game of the season on Thursday after he previously did not play against the Phoenix Suns on Dec. 28 due to a right quad contusion.
Thunder head coach Billy Donovan opted to start Dennis Schroder during that game in place of George so he could be a candidate to start once against Thursday night.
As George will not play for the Thunder, the Sixers are expected to be without Joel Embiid (knee soreness) and Boban Marjanovic (knee bruise) during the game.
The Thunder were seven-point favorites prior to the news of George missing the game but are now only favored by 4.5 points.
