Raptors rally past Clippers in fourth quarter as Leonard misses reunion

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — The line formed three hours before tip and was going strong minutes before the ball went up. 

Los Angeles Clippers fans gathered in the plaza outside the modern marvel that is Intuit Dome and waited patiently to rid themselves of their bad vibes. Specifically, they were lining up to exchange their formerly iconic No. 2 Kawhi Leonard Clippers jerseys for something new and different. A No. 1 Keaton Wagler perhaps, or a No. 31 Max Strus, or maybe even a Gradey Dick No. 9.

The choices for new jerseys varied, but the leading jersey being returned was Leonard’s, and it wasn’t particularly close. 

That’s what happens when you spend seven seasons with a team, don’t win a playoff series for the last five of them and miss more than 40 per cent of its games due to injury. Oh, and then leave amidst one of the NBA’s greatest scandals where it was learned that Clippers owner Steve Ballmer funnelled millions of dollars to Leonard via phony endorsement deals. 

While Leonard arrived in Toronto this season on a tidal wave of 2018-19 championship nostalgia, Clippers fans were fuming, heartbroken or both after an NBA investigation determined the Clippers had circumvented the salary cap to Leonard’s benefit and required them to forfeit five first-round picks, pay a $30-million fine and suspend several key personnel, including Ballmer. 

When the 2026-27 schedule came out, the Raptors' first game in Los Angeles against the Clippers was instantly circled as a moment when fans could vent at their departed anti-hero. A Shakespearean drama right there on the calendar.

Well, it didn’t quite work out that way, for reasons all too familiar to Clippers fans. Leonard wasn’t even in the building as he left the Raptors last week after his left knee began swelling up. He has been receiving treatment and rest at an undisclosed location that is not Toronto. An update on his condition is expected on Tuesday. He is likely two weeks, at minimum, from playing again and could be further away than that.

Instead, Monday's contest was anticlimactic. Just another game on the schedule between two tired teams playing on the second night of a back-to-back.

Short Leonard and without Jakob Poeltl for the second straight game, the Raptors looked tired and disorganized for most of the night, yet somehow found some legs and surged back from a 12-point hole with six minutes left to win going away, 125-118. The win improved their record to 4-3 and 1-1 on their four-game road swing that stops in Denver next. 

The Raptors trailed by 13 with two minutes left in the third quarter and stayed down by double digits almost the entire game until they pulled it out in the end, forcing the Clippers into six turnovers and 30 per cent shooting in the fourth quarter. 

“Sometimes the game is just not going your way, and you’ve to make it go your way with defence, with stops, with rebounding, taking care of the ball,” said Raptors guard Immanuel Quickley, who scored 14 of his game-high 27 points in the final quarter. “Sometimes the game, literally whatever you do, it sometimes doesn’t go your way. But you got to just kind of stick with it. I think sports teaches that a lot. When it’s not going your way, you got to make it go your way.”

Scottie Barnes (22 points, 15 rebounds, eight assists) pulled the Raptors within two with 3:26 to play; RJ Barrett (26 points, six rebounds, three assists) tied it with a twisting lay-up a moment later and Barnes put the Raptors ahead for good with a fadeaway with 2:08 to play. It got hairy at the end, and the Raptors needed to win two coach’s challenges to make sure they could close it out, but they closed it out. 

It was a tough blow for the Clippers, who fell to 1-6 and look to have years of basketball purgatory ahead of them. 

Monday could have at least provided some catharsis if Leonard was playing or even on the bench with the Raptors, but his wonky knees let them down again. All there was left were the hypotheticals. 

“If he was playing, I was definitely going to boo him,” said Ralston Dacanay, 28, who was exchanging his Clippers jersey for one representing Wagler, the No. 5 pick in the 2026 draft. “It left a sour taste, the way he left. If he was just leaving without all the other stuff, the scandal and the draft capital, that would have been one thing, but the draft capital, that’s hard to stomach. It would have been pretty fun to boo him for sure.”

Agreed, said Cole Kinslow, who also opted for a Wagler jersey over his old No. 2. 

He’s been a Clippers fan since the "Lob City" era, when Blake Griffin was crowning the opposition on the receiving end of Chris Paul passes. The Leonard era was supposed to be even better and deliver a championship for the long-beleaguered franchise. 

Not so much. 

“Like, with those draft picks, we lost 10 years of the future for something that never really happened, and now we’re just stuck in this weird mumbo jumbo,” said Kinslow, referring to the competitive window with Leonard that closed before it was ever really fully opened. “Like if he just left, sure, okay. But now it’s like we’re screwed for however many years. And he seemed extremely excited to get out of here.”

Any advice for Raptors fans who can look forward to at least three more years of potentially scintillating seasons interrupted by injury updates and uncertainty?

“I mean, if he’s healthy, he’s still a good player, you can’t deny it,” Kinslow said. “But he’s already out with knee inflammation or load management, right? It’s going to be a long roller-coaster, like it was for us.”

Three-point Grange

1. Finding his way: “It’s crazy.” That was Gradey Dick’s answer when I asked him about being in his fourth season already. But time flies in the NBA, and the former Raptor has quickly transitioned from being a lottery pick and a prospect to a player in the last year of a contract, trying to prove his worth to a new team after being included in the deal that sent Leonard to the Raptors. “Every single year I learn more and more,” said Dick. “I know how to hold myself as a player and as a person, with whatever I got through. And coming here after a trade, I learned a ton through that. And I’m just coming into this trying to find my role, and I feel like I’m doing that every single day.” Dick got his first start of the season against his old team and responded well, delivering 12 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals in 29 minutes. 

2. Missing the easy ones: The other day against the Orlando Magic, the Raptors were lamenting that they only got to the free-throw line 15 times. No complaints on Monday as the Raptors shot 48 free throws to the Clippers' 27. But if they’re going to get there, they need to make them. The Raptors shot just 31-for-48 from the line, and that’s with Quickley making 10-of-11. The rest of the roster was 21-for-37, or 57 per cent. The Raptors also shot just 8-of-29 from three. For the season, the Raptors are 25th in free-throw shooting (74.4 per cent) and 27th in three-point shooting (31.5 per cent). 

3. Old friend: After the buzzer, several Raptors mobbed Brandon Ingram, their old teammate who was also included in the Leonard deal. Ingram has yet to play for the Clippers as he recovers from surgery on his ankle and a partially torn Achilles tendon. He was in the G League on a rehab assignment and is expected to return to the court soon.