DALLAS — You know what they say about broken-down superstars: Can’t win with ’em, can’t win without ’em.
Don’t they say that?
They should.
Anyone who witnessed the Dallas Mavericks’ dominant 101-91 victory in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series against the Clippers on Friday night at American Airlines Center would.
Kawhi Leonard – the Clippers’ 32-year-old leading man who is trying to simultaneously manage the effects of knee inflammation and ramp up to something resembling his six-time All-Star, two-time NBA Finals MVP self and do it in the midst of a taut and agitating playoff series – gave his team what he could Friday.
That amounted to 25 minutes and nine points, the fewest he’d scored in a playoff game since June 8, 2014, when he tallied nine for the San Antonio Spurs in a 98-96 NBA Finals loss the Miami Heat.
Also four turnovers to go with two fouls, two assists and nine boards. A couple straightforward dunks after halftime were really the only flickers of Leonard’s typically laser-like efficiency.
And it’s hard to know exactly what the team is hoping for from Leonard, but Shohei Ohtani’s dog, Decoy, would probably prove a more fetching distraction for the Mavs’ defenders.
Because there’s anchoring your team’s defense, and then there’s anchoring your team – despite an athlete’s best efforts and noble intentions and an acknowledgement that, for the Clippers to have a real shot at winning their first title, they’ll need Kawhi to be killing it.
But “it just didn’t respond the way we wanted after the first game,” Leonard said of his long-troubled right knee, the site of a torn anterior cruciate ligament in the 2021 playoffs and a torn meniscus in the 2023 postseason.
“But we gonna get it right … we’re doing all the right things,” Leonard added, making it clear: “I wanted to be on the floor to help the team.”
Will he be back on the floor Sunday afternoon in Game 4, when the Clippers will try to avoid going down 3-1 in this best-of-seven series?
“I’ll see tomorrow,” Leonard said. “But I want to play, so.”
His teammate Paul George tipped his proverbial cap: “We know he’s not 100, but he’s still trying to suit up and give us what he can.”
Meantime, Coach Tyronn Lue and all of Clippers’ fandom would like Paul George to be Paul George.
Leonard’s All-Star co-star immediately got himself in foul trouble, and in just 30 minutes George scored just seven points – the fewest in a postseason game since 2013 for the 33-year-old who has now appeared in 111 of them.
Lue also said he wants his squad to play with more quickness and aggression, like the Clippers did when they built a convincing 27-point lead in Game 1, without Leonard, who has appeared relatively slow and unsteady afoot since returning in Game 2 on Tuesday.
“You can still play fast around him, until he finds his rhythm and finds his way,” Lue said. “We know what we’re supposed to do – we did it at times. You just can’t get frustrated … when things are not going your way offensively.”
It felt Friday, when Russell Westbrook was tossed with two technical fouls and Terance Mann was tagged with one too, as if the Clippers were reacting to five years of pent-up frustration related to the “213 Era.”
That’s the tenure that brought together a duo of Southern California-born superstar wings – No. 2 Leonard and No. 13 George – and which has resulted only in the team’s first Western Conference finals run in 2021 and nothing past that.
Never mind 213. Might want to call 911, because unless the Clippers figure out quickly how to thread the needle around their still-not-up-to-speed star, they might be in real trouble.
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They’ve got their hands full with Dallas’ Luka Doncic (22 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists) and friends dunking all over the Clippers (per ESPN, their 10 first-half dunks was one shy of an NBA record for a half of playoff basketball).
And past that, with the opening of Intuit Dome in Inglewood next season, the team’s future is murky. Earlier this season, Leonard signed a three-year, $152.4 million contract extension that goes through the 2026-27 season. George, however, hasn’t yet reached an agreement with the team on an extension past his $48.8 million player option for next season.
But, hey. What do they say? One game at a time?
“It takes time to get in a rhythm,” Leonard said. “Just happy I played, for the most part. I was able to get out there and experience the game.”
All he and his squad can do now: “Keep going.”