Kawhi Leonard made his long-awaited return in the Clippers‘ season-opening victory over the Lakers, recording 14 points, seven rebounds, two assists and a steal in 21 minutes of action as a reserve. After the game, the star forward explained why he liked the idea of coming off the bench, writes Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.
“One scenario with me starting, I would have been sitting like 35 minutes real time,” Leonard said. “That’s way too long. So I just thought this was the best situation. But we’ll see how it goes moving forward.”
“I did this before,” Leonard added. “This is how I started my career. That’s how I approached it mentally. Act like I was in foul trouble, and once I check in in the second quarter, it’s time to play basketball.”
Leonard said he plans to gradually ramp up his minutes to strengthen his surgically-repaired ACL, and will likely sit out one game of back-to-backs. According Youngmisuk, Leonard also said he’ll “probably” return to the starting lineup once he feels comfortable playing around 35 minutes per night again — he averaged 34.1 MPG in 2020/21.
Here’s more on the Clippers:
- Leonard and John Wall will sit out Saturday’s contest at Sacramento due to “return from injury rehabilitation (rest),” tweets Youngmisuk. The news was expected, as it’s the first of a back-to-back. The Clippers face the Suns in their home opener on Sunday.
- The Clippers recognize that the 82-game regular season is a marathon, not a sprint, and don’t expect to be playing their best early on with players in and out of the lineup, according to Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times. “It’s not going to be pretty, it’s not going to be easy, we just got to endure the blows in the beginning, be ready for it and just our whole mental preparation should just be in it for the long haul,” Paul George said.
- Speaking of George, he says he’s become a more vocal leader with the goal of bringing the team a championship, per Janis Carr of The Orange County Register. “It’s a certain level and expectation that you want out of a group when you have a legitimate chance to win it,” said George, a seven-time All-Star. “I just want to make sure we are mindful of that, every practice day, every game day, like what is at stake here. That is why I have been vocal.”
This season is the best chance Clippers can win championship
Because
This is the first year Warriors are under real rebuild
Warriors youth will be better next year
Clippers vets will be older next year
It comes down to who will survive injuries. Clippers look super deep yet the Warriors showed last night their bench is very weak and not ready for prime time. But hopefully they’ll get better.
Warriors +/- against Denver last night all the starters did well but the scrubs all had negative numbers. Denver’s bench took Golden State to task.
I totally agree with you. If Kawhi Leonard Paul George and John Wall healthy come playoff time they can definitely win it all.
Return from injury rehabilitation… so you’re healthy enough to play but need to rest? What a time to be an NBA player. Get paid more money than ever, just get hurt and you’ll never have to play in 82 games again. I’m sorry but as a fan, how can everyone support this? I understand that it’s a long season, but you’re paid to play
Exactly. They get paid and get paid “exorbitantly” well…
I wish there was a rule that when a family buys tickets to see Kawhi Leonard in their arena when the Clippers visit they could get a refund when he sits out.
I know how the game is these days but the Clippers basically saying “we won’t play our good players because the season is too long” is kinda bs.
Change the rules and divide the contract by 82. This is how much you get per game.
“If you play, we pay.”