George not looking happy with Thunder

Sometimes the grass isn’t greener on the other side of the fence. Or the foothills.

Call it a photochemical effect.

As his proud neighbors who care about this devoted Son of Palmdale, we hope this isn’t what’s happening to Paul George.

To be sure, the Lakers would have been a better team had the Knight in shining armor come home to the team he grew up idolizing.

PG-13 would watch Laker games on Sunday afternoons, then go out and try to imitate Kobe Bryant’s moves on the driveway basketball court.

Jersey No. 24 was a tribute to Kobe, too.

So a year after George understandably found happiness in Oklahoma City, a marvelous place to raise a family, where do we stand?

The Oklahoma City Thunder are perched on the precipice of a third straight first-round playoff ouster, this time by the Portland Trail Blazers.

In other words, they’ve played one more playoff series than the hapless Lakers.

And both teams will have the same number of playoff series victories by the end of the week.

The journal of record in the Sooner State, The Daily Oklahoman, describes this playoff series as nothing less than a referendum on the franchise itself.

If OKC is blitzed again in Game 5, Thunder general manager Sam Presti will have some serious soul-searching on his hands — and maybe, after that, major roster reconstruction.

You wonder what else the former Knight High legend could have done this season.

For most of the year, he presented a compelling candidacy to join Basketball Hall of Famers Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon as the only players ever to win the NBA’s MVP and Defensive Player of the Year Award in the same season.

But all Thunder fans are going to remember is losing in the first round to a team they feel their team should have beaten.

They’ll end up the season the same way their superstar leader spent it — miserable.

Since he signed a five-year,

$205 million contract extension before the 2017-18 season, Westbrook has seemed to need things to be P-O’ed about.

He’s picked a fight with Oklahoman Sports Columnist Berry Tramel, who charged that OKC basically gave Westbrook control of the franchise when it gave him the $205 million.

Now, Tramel contends, Westbrook is trying to control the media with his “Next Question” dismissals toward Tramel and his frequent critiques of media questions to his teammates.

Russell Westbook is one of the five most explosive players in NBA history, as evidenced by his seasonlong triple-double in 2017, the first since Oscar Robertson 56 years earlier.

He took UCLA to the Final Four in each of his two seasons with the Bruins.

Westbrook wasn’t like this when he led the Thunder to the NBA Finals in 2012 and nearly got them there again two years ago.

He should instill in his teammates his unparalleled passion and intensity.

Not his corrosive bad attitude.

Oklahoma, like Palmdale, is a place where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain.

And down the driveway at Casa de George.

We need to see that driveway joy on Paul George’s face again.

The sooner, the better.