Now-healthy Kawhi Leonard back to being the gamebreaker he once was

LOS ANGELES — Four seasons and no championships later, Kawhi Leonard is in the same situation he ever was when he was a Toronto Raptor: on a team that needs him to be great if they are going to win an NBA championship.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Leonard left Toronto to be closer to his San Diego roots, to be sure, but also because playing with Paul George and on a team where the endless financial resources of owner Steve Ballmer would mean that no expense would be spared on building the supporting cast superstars need to win.

That box has been checked — Ballmer is on the hook for $336 million in salary and luxury tax payments this year, second only to the Golden State Warriors. But heading into Wednesday night’s game against the Toronto Raptors, the Clippers had 34 wins, just two more than the Raptors who are under the tax with a payroll of about $149 million. Both teams are in the play-in tournament in the final weeks of the season in their respective conferences. The Raptors never expected to be in this position, the Clippers — pre-season title contenders — would have bet on it.

But make no mistake: the Clippers will go as far as Leonard will take them.

The good news is Leonard is fully capable, if he can stay fully healthy. After missing all of last season with a torn ACL he suffered in the 2020-21 playoffs and a slow start to this year, Leonard is back.

Since the first week of January he’s played 22 out of a possible 26 games, averaged 37 minutes a night and put up 28.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.8 steals while shooting 52.6 per cent from the floor, 49.6 per cent from three (on more than five attempts per game) and 91.5 per cent from the line.

“This last run he’s been on since January has been unbelievable, one of the highest levels I’ve seen,” said Clippers head coach Ty Lue. “And that’s how we need him to play to be successful every night. He missed around 28 games this year and he started off slow, playing 18-20 minutes for the first five, but since we’ve been able to rev him up and play him 36-37 minutes he’s been playing at a high level, so that definitely give us confidence on both sides of the ball that he can be elite.”

Meanwhile, the Raptors continue to do a pretty convincing imitation of a team that has lots of interesting pieces and a committed style of play. But they lack that one star to put them over the top.

In their first of two games in Los Angeles to conclude their five-game road trip both things proved true. Leonard was excellent, his claw marks all over what ended up being a 108-100-win for the Clippers over the visiting Raptors. His line might not have popped the way it has at various times in the second half of the season — 24 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and three steals — but it was enough and he got enough help that the Raptors couldn’t overcome it.

But he still has a knack for making game-determining plays almost at will. As examples: midway through the fourth quarter the Raptors were hopeful of making a run and they had their starters back in, down 10. But after a missed VanVleet three, Leonard was able to snatch an offensive rebound from the grip of Jakob Poeltl and fire it up the floor to George who lobbed a perfect alley-oop to Terance Mann who finished the three-point play. Next possession Leonard blew past O.G. Anunoby, rose up and smashed a dunk over Poeltl, proof that all-NBA calibre defence and quality rim protection are no match for him. On the Clippers' next possession Leonard won a race to a loose ball with VanVleet, batted it to Mann before falling into the front row of seats and went to the line again. The mini-surge put the Clippers up by 14 and the game was mostly in their control.

Meanwhile for the second straight game against a quality opponent Toronto played hard, played well and got some solid performances from key elements of their rotation, but couldn’t get over the hump. Pascal Siakam led Toronto with 20 points, five rebounds and five assists, Anunoby had 18 points and four made threes while sticking with Leonard defensively and VanVleet had 13 points and nine assists.

Toronto eventually cut the Clippers lead to four with 54 seconds left after Scottie Barnes (20 points, five rebounds, four assists, though on 5-of-21 shooting) scored, assisted on a three from Anunoby and made a pair of free throws in the space of a minute after Leonard had put Los Angeles up 10 with 1:46 left. But they couldn’t pull any closer.

The Raptors took 25 more shots than the Clippers but made two less field goals as Toronto shot 38.5 per cent from the floor to 54.9 per cent for Los Angeles. Toronto had a 13-6 edge in three-pointers made, a 15-9 edge in offensive rebounds, and a 17-12 advantage in turnovers but the Clippers got to the line 31 times to 14 for the Raptors which made the difference.

George had 23 points for Los Angeles.

The loss dropped Toronto to 1-3 on their trip and 32-35 on the season as they stay a half-game ahead of Washington in ninth place and a game behind Atlanta in eighth. The Clippers improved to 35-34 and are in seventh in the West.

The Raptors — of the few that remain from the 2018-19 title team — don’t live in the past, but they still arrived at Crypto.com Arena with a little zip in their step.

“It’s not like the first time,” said VanVleet. “But you always want to beat him. Anyone that you used to play with, you want the upper hand.”

Toronto had just that for much of the early going. Before the game both teams were talking about turnovers: the Clippers needing to avoid them (coincidence or not Los Angeles is second in the NBA in turnovers in the last six games since Russell Westbrook joined them as a free agent) and Toronto’s determination to force them at their league-leading rate.

The Raptors won out early. The Clippers' seventh turnover — and the Raptors' sixth steal — of the first quarter came when Anunoby read Eric Gordon getting himself into trouble off the dribble, picked off his attempt to get out of it and went the other way for the reverse dunk. It was the peak moment of an impressive opening 12 minutes for Toronto as they lead Los Angeles 25-17 even with Leonard scoring nine points on five shots.

But the Clippers tightened things up in the second quarter. They only turned it over four times and their advantages began to show. Leonard kept up his relentless ways as he scored eight points on three shots but helped the Clippers tie the score for the first time when he picked off a stray Poeltl pass and got it to Mann for a lay-up to knot the score at 31-31 midway through the quarter.

Leonard got some help from George who proved too much for the Raptors off the dribble. He had seven in the quarter. Meanwhile, Leonard’s old Raptors teammates were playing at a high level and Siakam and VanVleet each had 11 in the first half, but it was their supporting cast that needed to step up as Toronto shot just 39.6 per cent from the floor, though their 7-of-14 mark from three helped keep the score tied 49-49 to start the third quarter.

But in a positive sign for Leonard and the Clippers, the game turned on a 13-2 run in the third quarter when Leonard didn’t have to score at all. Newcomer Gordon and holdover Mann provide the horsepower in the four-minute run that ended the third quarter where Los Angeles went up by as much as 13 before taking an 83-74 lead into the fourth.

Toronto kept pushing the issue but didn’t have the horses to make the difference, while Leonard — the ultimate thoroughbred — got just the help he needed.