The Clippers are coming home from their three-game road swing for a bona fide meet-and-greet, a long-awaited home game at Staples Center in front of people who’ve bought to tickets to be there – and possibly to bear witness to some personal scoring history by Paul George.

The Clippers’ star has been on a tear, with a career-high-tying five-game scoring streak of 30-plus points. He’s steered through defenses that have been better able to key on him without Kawhi Leonard in the lineup, and performed despite a nagging toe injury and, in the last game, the lingering effects of illness.

George is averaging 34.8 points in this recent five-game stretch, shooting 53.4% from the field and 52.4% from 3-point range. He’s also averaging 5.8 rebounds, 6.2 assists and 1.4 steals in that span.

The last time he had this kind of run was in Oklahoma City in 2018-19, the season he finished third in MVP voting.

Between Jan. 27 and Feb. 5 of that season, George averaged 38.4 points per game, shooting 49.6% from the floor and 48.4% from deep.

That season, too, George dealt with injury. The Palmdale native played through shoulder pain that hampered his scorching production; his field goal percentage dropped from 45.3% to 40.0% after the All-Star break and his falloff from 3-point range was even more pronounced – 40.6% to 33.6%.

He had surgery on both shoulders in the offseason before the trade that brought him to the Clippers, delaying his debut in L.A.

Healthy to start his second season, he earned his seventh All-Star bid and has helped solidify the Clippers’ position in the Western Conference hunt – they occupy the third seed at 39-19 entering Sunday’s game against Minnesota, and they’re 31-12 with George in the lineup.

For the season, he’s averaging a career-best 5.5 assists per game and shooting a career-high 47.9% from the field and 43.7% from long range.

But he and the Clippers will have to tread cautiously as George deals with the bone edema, which causes painful swelling in a toe in his right foot.

“I’m just paying attention to my body,” George said after scoring 36 points on 13-of-25 shooting in a victory Tuesday in Indiana, the front half of a back-to-back, which preceded a game off the next night in Detroit for rest and recovery.

“We’ve been doing an incredible job of managing the toe, getting everything that I need for it, and just taking care of it. We’ve been ahead of it, sitting out these back-to-backs … Honestly, it’s just been taking the time that I can get off, I’ve been taking that time off to let it heal and letting it rest. It hasn’t been flaring up, so that’s been working.

“Day offs, getting work in that I need to. But not putting too much stress through it. So just being smart. And it’s been paying off.”

He’s likely to sit out one game of the Clippers’ two remaining back-to-back sets, including this week’s, which starts in Portland on Tuesday and ends the next night in L.A. against Memphis.

Beyond stealing some rest when possible, George said he’s also been receiving regular treatment – “contrasting, cold, hot tub, and then just getting massages, that’s been helping.”

But mostly, what helps is keeping off of it as much as he can, he said.

“And hopefully, hopefully at some point it just goes away and it’s an afterthought, nothing I’m worried about going forward,” George said. “But it is what it is; injuries is a part of the game, it’s just about managing it.”

To hear George explain it, that matter-of-fact, mind-over-matter way of looking at it has uncorked his recent outburst.

“The injury allowed me to kind of make an excuse for myself, but then when I put it in perspective, if I’ma play, then why not just give it my all and put that to the side?” he said. “So that was the mindset I came in with, just to play through it: If I’m gon’ play, then, you know, don’t let it limit me. And, again, it’s just been paying off. I feel like I’ve had a breakthrough because of that mindset and I’ve been good.”

FANS IN THE STANDS

After the Lakers welcomed back fans Thursday, the Clippers get to welcome back some 2,000 members of Clipper Nation on Sunday, spectators who all are either fully vaccinated according to CDC guidelines or can provide proof of a negative coronavirus test within the previous 72 hours among the precautions put in place.

“Oh, I can’t wait,” Patrick Patterson said after Friday’s loss in Philadelphia, his eyes lighting up above his mask. “I can’t wait. I’ve missed it. I’ve missed having fans at Staples, on the road. I just miss fans being in the seats, chanting, I miss the banter back and forth on the road. I miss the fans at home, cheering, yelling, encouraging us game in, game out, so I’m very excited.

“Whether we have 2,000, 7,000, 100, it doesn’t matter. As long as we have some bodies in those seats and have some people cheering us on, that’s all that matters to me.”

TIMBERWOLVES (15-42) at CLIPPERS (39-19)

When: 7 p.m. Sunday

Where: Staples Center

TV: Bally Sports SoCal, NBA TV

See you tomorrow, #ClipperNation! pic.twitter.com/2HD8PZFy5v

— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) April 17, 2021

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