Oklahoma City Thunder small forward Paul George says his team went through a noticeable dip in energy late in the 2018-19 NBA season.

George made his sentiments known to Sekou Smith on NBA.com’s “Hang Time Podcast” on April 4.

We hit a wall as a group where we haven’t been playing our best and, you know, it hasn’t been good that we finish and we’re closing out the opponents we have to finish this season out. No excuses, though. We just haven’t been playing well down the stretch. You know, it’s amplified because of how stacked this thing is coming down to the wire in the West. We’re trying to tune things out. We’re trying to figure out our identity. It’s set in stone – we’re in the playoffs. Now we’re just working on playing the right way going down into the playoffs.

At one point during the season, the Thunder were 37-19 (.661). This was right before the All-Star Break.

Since then, Oklahoma City has gone 8-14 in its next 22 games to fall to 45-33 (.577) on the season. Paul George averaged a gaudy 35 points in February. However, his point production in March dipped by almost nine points to 26.2 per game.

At one point, George was in the MVP conversation. That is no longer the case. As the regular season winds down, it seems it is a two-player race between the Houston Rockets’ James Harden and the Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo.

George’s lower scoring average is just one of the reasons why Oklahoma City is in a funk right now. The Thunder began to conspicuously lose steam just before the All-Star break. They couldn’t stop the bleeding. Head coach Billy Donovan must figure something out — and quickly.

As of April 4, the Thunder are in a tight race for the seventh and eighth playoff spots with the San Antonio Spurs (45-34) in the Western Conference. Should the current playoff seedings hold up, seventh-seeded Oklahoma City would face the rejuvenated Denver Nuggets (52-26) in the first round.

George has been averaging 28.0 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 4.1 assists in the 2018-19 NBA season.