Paul George heard the chatter.After his first season as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers was plagued by injury issues and declining production, the “washed” allegations started flying. Given his age – he turned 35 in May – such claims were understandable, but George’s goal this season was to prove that they were unfounded.It’s only December, but the early returns have been promising. George is averaging more points this season despite playing fewer minutes as he continues to work his way back from offseason knee surgery. He’s also converting his shots from the floor, from long range and from the foul line at a high percentage.George turned in his best game in a Sixers uniform on Sunday night against the Atlanta Hawks. The Sixers lost the game, 120-117, but George dropped 35 points to go along with 4 rebounds, 3 assists and a block. Afterwards, he responded to the doubters."I mean, prior to coming here, I was coming off one of my most efficient seasons," George said. "All-Star that year. I didn't see myself being washed that fast, but I knew. I knew that this league is about what you can do now, and they tend to forget everything that I have done. So, it was a bit of motivation going into the summer to just get healthy and kind of let everything else take care of itself."For George, the difference between his performance last season and what we’ve seen from him so far this season is simple and comes down to one thing: Health."Just been healthier," George said. "Last year was a lot going on. I was just trying to patch up stuff. This year, I'm a lot healthier. I feel like I can play my game. I feel like I can be myself. There's still some things I got to come back. I'm not all the way 100, but I'm more myself than I was last year. So that's the positive that I can take, and everything else is with time, I'm just going to continue to get better."This story will be updated.