Paul George is gone ‘til November

You may remember that a subplot to Paul George’s third-place MVP finish and the Thunder’s nightmare first round exit last spring was that Paul George had some shoulder injuries. As it turns out, he did have shoulder surgery to repair those issues when no one was paying attention to the Thunder, and now that we’re paying attention to Paul George on the Clippers, it matters.

As training camp opened over the weekend for the Clips, we learned that George will miss the start of the regular season while recovering from those shoulder surgeries. He’s expected back in November.

There’s probably no team better equipped to deal with the absence of one of their stars than the Clippers, who have two MVP candidates and a deep well of effective scorers and defenders.

But George’s absence is an interesting wrinkle in the quest for dominance for Los Angeles. Incorporating two players of the pure gravity of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George is difficult, especially for a team that is already used to success. Adding one in camp and the other later on the fly adds to the difficulty, especially when one would expect that Leonard will still be settling in when George comes back.

LA remains perhaps the most talented team in the entire league, and will be fine. And this wasn’t totally out of the blue. It’s still not the start you’d like to have when the window’s not guaranteed to stay open more than two years or so. Time is of the essence.

Game 1 of the WNBA Finals was Sunday, and would you believe that the Washington Mystics, with the best offense ever, scored a bunch of points? It’s true. The Mystics beat Connecticut 95-86 as the loaded Sun couldn’t slow second year player Ariel Atkins or really any Mystics.

Washington shot 54 percent from the floor and averaged 1.18 points per possession against a strong defense. They are unstoppable. I mean, Connecticut hopes that’s not true, but a few weeks into the WNBA playoffs, it sure looks that way.

Game 2 is Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

Matt Ellentuck on how this WNBA Finals matchup is a basketball nerd’s dream.

We picked eight teams we think will hit the over on win totals this season.

Here are six more rule changes the NBA should test out in the G League.

The Heat locked up Erik Spoelstra with a multi-year extension. Nice work. Good coach.

Your early training camp hype king is ... Avery Bradley?

Steve Javie retired as an NBA referee and ... went to Catholic seminary. He’s now a deacon.

Nets training camp opened on Friday. Yep, it’s weird seeing Kyrie and Kevin Duant as teammates in Brooklyn.

The Lakers appear to be saying that right things about expectations.

Fresh off his star turn in the World Cup, ageless wonder Luis Scola signed with Olimpia Milano.

And finally: brilliant piece by Bruno Passos on the likelihood that Becky Hammon will be the Spurs’ head coach for at least part of a game this season as Gregg Popovich’s top assistant, and how there’s never going to be a whiff of tokenism about it.

Be excellent to each other.