Maybe it was a post-traumatic stress reaction. Maybe it was denial.

Oklahoma City Thunder forward Paul George had just been eliminated from the playoffs in five games by way of a 37-foot dagger. Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard isolated George with no shot clock on and the score tied Tuesday when he side-stepped the lanky Thunder wing, drilled the three at the buzzer and waved goodbye to Oklahoma City’s bench.

What did George have to say about it?

“That’s a bad, bad shot,” he said while sitting next to renowned bad-shot man Russell Westbrook. “I don’t care what anybody says. That’s a bad shot. But hey, he made it. That story won’t be told that it was a bad shot. We live with that.”

Criticizing that take could be out of context if we don’t mention that George also called Lillard’s game-winner a “tough shot,” and we can go into semantics about whether called it a “bad shot” is any different — or whether George meant any disrespect.

But yeah, we’re going to have to pass on his opinion either way. It’s not bad shot when the intention was exacted as planned — shoot ball on a string into hoop — and the evidence exists that shows the outcome is not unusual.

The rules are a little different for Lillard. According to ESPN’s Kirk Goldsberry, the Blazers star hit 39.2 percent of shots between 30-40 feet this season. Lillard hit a similar shot from 34 feet in the same game and opened the series hitting one from very, very deep.

And so George’s certainty that it was a bad shot is, well, a tad off base. No matter that George contested it well, he didn’t block it. Then the only context that matters is, “Who is taking that shot?”

The internet agrees with this.

Paul George: Bad shot.

Damian Lillard: pic.twitter.com/42K4wZt9Pv

— J.E. Skeets (@jeskeets) April 24, 2019

Sometimes a guy makes a bad shot. Other times, he misses 20 out of 31 bad shots. It just depends. https://t.co/BvocF6j14y

— ☕netw3rk (@netw3rk) April 24, 2019

Out here killing slugs with that salt

— Kerith Burke (@KerithBurke) April 24, 2019

BAAAAAAD SHHHHHHHHOT… pic.twitter.com/5yKRH0qRJo

— RipCity_Autism Dad (@Ripcity_AutismD) April 24, 2019

Chandler Parsons is still handling this better than Paul George. https://t.co/Dk32rULURA

— Danny Marang (@DMarang) April 24, 2019

You can’t be like it’s a bad shot when your PG took 31 SHOTS to score 29 POINTS

— Kofie (@KofieYeboah) April 24, 2019

“And as Russell’s teammate, I consider myself somewhat of an expert when it comes to bad shots.” https://t.co/J5Lxnn7LiC

— sreekar (@sreekyshooter) April 24, 2019

Bad shot ? pic.twitter.com/5Tu6eWvoWR

— S2K (@Switch2Knife) April 24, 2019

lol. Ok… pic.twitter.com/nS8RMdTV00

— Darkwing🛸 (@ofwgkeel) April 24, 2019

Someone might’ve already pointed this out but here’s Dame’s first bucket of the series and his last. Just another wholesome thing from tonight’s win (p.s. it wasn’t a bad shot PG, it was comfortable range) pic.twitter.com/V6mRJ2VXQL

— Nate Mann (@nate_mann13) April 24, 2019

Paul George just sat next on the podium next to Russell Westbrook and said Damian Lillard took a bad shot. Not sure if I expected him to get hit by a brick or lightning.

— Myles Brown (@mdotbrown) April 24, 2019

Saying Dame took a “bad shot” is like calling Curry a chucker

— Nathaniel Friedman (@freedarko) April 24, 2019

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