INGLEWOOD – Guess who’s back? Back again?
Why, Kawhi of course.
The Clippers have closed the phone book on the 213 era, but for them, it’s still Kawhi Leonard, on loop. Basketball excellence with a bad knee, potentially historic upside in a heartbreakingly uncooperative body. It’s getting knocked down and getting back up, over and over again.
Because he “always comes back,” as he told us, in his most monotone, in that new New Balance ad. And so, like the pitchman said he’d be, there he was: The Clippers’ 33-year-old star, back on the court Saturday for the first time this season, clocking in for 19 minutes before one of the biggest crowds yet at Intuit Dome.
Leonard shot 4 for 11 from the field, 3 for 5 from 3-point range and 1 for 3 from the free-throw line for 12 points. In preseason form, as promised. He added three rebounds, an assist and a steal and turned over the ball twice in an easy 131-105 victory over the mediocre Atlanta Hawks, a snoozer that left Leonard yawning on the bench.
There wasn’t any suspense Saturday beyond whether or not Leonard would play. But now that he has, now that he is, there’s actual intrigue about these Clippers, whose spirits he lifted and whose loads he’ll lighten, whose potential he could unlock.
It’s as if Coach Tyronn Lue’s team, which at 20-15 is very much in the mix in the crowded Western Conference, just acquired a six-time All-Star and two-time NBA Finals MVP.
It’s as though this version of the Clippers – beneficiaries of no expectations after letting Paul George walk and leaning instead on a Kawhi-less cast led by 35-year-old James Harden and a bunch of relatively unheralded (read: underrated) role players – just added a ringer. Like they just picked up a guy who averaged 23.7 points per game last season on 52.5% shooting, including 41.7% from deep.
But this time, it’s addition without subtraction.
“We can get better,” Lue said Saturday night. “We’ve got to start adding offensively now that Kawhi’s back. … We’re ready to build off this; we’ve done a good job of holding it down, but now we’ve got to continue to take those next steps to be a great team.”
Or as Leonard told courtside reporter Lauren Rosen after the final buzzer: “We’re working to create something beautiful.”
And so here we go again. Getting people’s hopes up.
The Clippers are a case study in try, try, trying again.
It’s either going to result in a breakthrough of epic proportions, a monumental triumph for sticking with it, for loyalty and determination. Or it’s going to prove what they say about doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results: It’s insane.
Either way, it’s the bet the Clippers made.
They went all in on Leonard last January when they signed him to a three-year $152.4 million extension that takes him through the 2026-27 season. That was after his torn ACL and his torn meniscus, after the knee injury he played through in the Toronto Raptors’ title run in 2019, after the quadriceps tendinopathy before that, which famously soured his stint with the San Antonio Spurs.
But the extension came before knee swelling sidelined him late last season and then for most of another of the Clippers’ abbreviated playoff stays, punctuated by another of Lawrence Frank’s impromptu rip-fans’-hearts-out news conferences: “The obvious question, I know is coming, so I’ll beat you to it: When’s he coming back?” the team’s president of basketball operations said on April 28 in Dallas, when Leonard was ruled out, “I can’t tell you.”
And then Leonard was excused from Olympic duty last summer, ahead of the surreptitious “setback” that came sometime afterward, which led to his status to start this season: Out indefinitely.
Until Saturday, when the Clippers got back their basketball killer, their biggest star and mystery man. It’s a lot to expect Leonard to pick back up as one of the game’s most elite defenders, but he remains one of the game’s most guarded stars – unwilling to divulge almost anything about anything, especially injuries that leave his fans so concerned.
Not that you have to be a Clipper fan to find yourself sitting with a certain amount of trepidation while you watch him play, relieved to see him bounce back all three times he hit the deck Saturday. You don’t have to root for the team to feel yourself hoping no next sneaker will drop: “Last time, I just woke up and it was flared up and I couldn’t move,” Leonard said. “Now I don’t know. It’s just day to day.”
Or to understand why Leonard and the Clippers are refusing to rush the process: “We’re on nobody’s timetable,” Leonard said. “Anybody watching that wants me to score, 20, 30 points and be aggressive, we’re on no one’s timeframe. We know what’s ahead of us and we have to keep building in the right direction.”
Perfectly understandable and, honestly, wise. But it also makes for a precarious existence in a cutthroat conference where one bad stretch could push a team out of contention.
And this team could contend.
Yes, George is gone. But who wouldn’t trust Harden and shooting guard Norman Powell (a champion in Toronto alongside Leonard) after watching them work together so far this season?
Center Ivica Zubac’s year-over-year improvement has continued. Wing Amir Coffey is making nearly 45% of his 3-pointers. New guys Kris Dunn and Derrick Jones Jr. and assistant coach Jeff Van Gundy are proving themselves defensive wizards, and to show for it, the Clippers are fourth in the NBA in defensive rating (108.3), giving up the fourth-fewest points per game (107.9).
This is a deep squad, hungry and well-coached. And the Clippers could be a problem come postseason – but really only if Leonard is logged in and operating at or near full power. That’s been their problem, one they’ve been working on solving for five seasons, all that time spent on it not making it any easier.
Maybe, at some point, they’re due some better luck. Or maybe they’re bound to repeat this crazy-making chapter in team history again. Either way, this is the path they’ve chosen, and now that he’s back — back again — they’re going down it with Kawhi.