Clippers' Kawhi Leonard is back at an All

With just over two minutes left to play in the first half Friday at Barclays Center, the Brooklyn Nets attempted to get into their offense in front of the LA Clippers bench. Nets center Nic Claxton dribbled at the top of the key while point guard D’Angelo Russell attempted to screen for forward Ziaire Williams.

Clippers defender Kris Dunn switched off Russell and onto Williams, disrupting the handoff. The player who switched with Dunn was Kawhi Leonard, a two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year who was dominating the Nets in this second quarter.

Claxton tried to swing a pass over to Russell instead of trying to hand off to Williams, and Leonard knifed in and returned a steal for a breakaway slam:

To cap that first half, Leonard received a pass from Clippers All-Star point guard James Harden, who was being double-teamed near the Nets’ bench. Leonard saw Russell slowly retreating from Dunn. Unbothered by Russell’s presence, Leonard rose from 34 feet to splash a 3-pointer to effectively end the competitive portion of the Clippers’ visit to Brooklyn:

Leonard’s 31-point performance in Brooklyn required only 14 field-goal attempts and 26 minutes, 55 seconds of court time. It was Leonard’s third 30-point game of March after having none from the time he debuted with the Clippers this season on Jan. 4 through the end of February.

In the previous game at Madison Square Garden, the New York Knicks had an early 14-point lead. But once Leonard went into iso mode in front of Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau, it was only a matter of time before that lead was toast, and Thibodeau knew it:

When it comes to 20-point games, Leonard had three in January and three in February. In March, Leonard scored at least 20 points in 12 of the 13 games he played. The exception was a 17-point performance against the Sacramento Kings that ended with his first career overtime game-winning buzzer-beater.

None of this is a surprise to Leonard. The 12 20-point games in March tie his career-best in any month. Leonard averaged 25.2 points per game in March, his most since January 2023, while making 52.1 percent of his field goals.

“Just getting healthy, I think trusting it,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said about observing Leonard’s progression throughout this season. “Understanding he can play and go all out without feeling any pain or any swelling. Just took him a minute to get back in the flow of the game. He’s been out for seven, eight months.”

Leonard attributed his increase in production to a minutes bump that saw him go from 24.2 minutes per game in January to 31.4 minutes per game in February to 36.3 minutes per game in March. But his comeback from swelling and inflammation in his surgically repaired right knee was a multi-step process.

Leonard had to return to practice after missing training camp and the start of the season to strengthen his knee. He did that in December. He had to make his on-court debut and accomplished that in January. Leonard had to show he could increase his minutes without suffering any setbacks. Other than a foot injury suffered in Milwaukee that cost him two games in February, Leonard has consistently played.

March was his loud announcement that he was ready to take the next step in his comeback, which was to approximate his All-NBA status from last season, when he earned second-team honors. In March 2024, Leonard also scored 20 points a dozen times, but his knee stiffened up before he could play any regular-season games in April. His postseason was limited to two games. And his summer was ruined by his knee issues, as Leonard lost his spot on the U.S. Olympic team that won gold in Paris.

Leonard missed the preseason and the first 34 games of the 2024-25 season. Now he’s ready to do what he couldn’t do last season or any of the previous four.

“I want to get to the summer healthy,” Leonard told The Athletic after the Clippers won in Brooklyn. “So I can have a great summer and come in and have a good year overall. That’s what I’m banking on, that’s what I’m praying for. And hopefully it happens for me.”

This is a sentiment Leonard has expressed before. When Leonard repeats an expression, he means it and wants others to know he means it. After Leonard made his southpaw buzzer-beater against the Kings, he was asked about whether it was more satisfying given the fact that he’s missed so much time and opportunity over the last year.

“Nah, I’m not thinking about that,” Leonard said. “Just one game. My goal is to be healthy at the end of the season, so I can have a good summer and not worry about doing a whole rehab process again, missing training camp.”

Leonard’s upswing is coinciding with the Clippers playing some of their best basketball of the season. LA won 11 of 16 games in March, its best month of the season and its best March since going 13-2 in 2018-19. The Clippers had the 20th-ranked offense in the NBA through February this season but were ranked fifth in offensive efficiency in March. A big part of that was having a player like Leonard add volume to his superb efficiency.

“For him to come back and do what he’s doing now, we knew he would get to this level,” Lue said of Leonard. “And when he did, we’re a different team. You can see that right now.”

The Clippers return home having already achieved an organizational goal.

In September, when president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank was declaring Leonard out on a “month-to-month” basis just ahead of training camp, he mentioned how the Clippers have the NBA’s longest active streak of consecutive winning seasons. Frank also alluded to the 2021-22 season that saw the Clippers go 42-40 despite Leonard being out the entire year due to ACL surgery and Paul George missing more than half of the season.

Even with Leonard having to watch the first two and a half months of this season, the Clippers were able to achieve their 14th consecutive season with a winning record before March ended. Leonard contributed to that, but he is also wary of the fact that the Clippers have had solid regular seasons that have led to disappointing postseason results due to his inability to complete a postseason under Lue.

“You can tell that this organization wants to be competitive,” Leonard said in Brooklyn. “Unfortunately, things have happened to me … but it’s always a blessing to have a winning season. These guys have been playing great all year to put us in this position. I’m pretty sure our front office enjoys this.”

Now the Clippers start a five-game homestand while in the middle of a stretch of five games in seven days. LA will host an extremely short-handed New Orleans Pelicans team before a back-to-back against the Dallas Mavericks. The Clippers will have consecutive days off, then their final back-to-back of the season against the San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets. The final two games of the season are on the road, where the Clippers will look to complete regular-season sweeps of the Kings and the Golden State Warriors.

LA (43-32) is in the middle of the Play-In Tournament conversation in the Western Conference standings. That record is good enough for eighth place in the West but is tied in the loss column with the Minnesota Timberwolves (44-32) and the free-falling Memphis Grizzlies (44-32), while being a game behind the fifth-place Warriors (44-31).

It’s a place the Clippers don’t want to be. They have experience losing two games in the Play-In Tournament and losing their playoff spot to a team that had six more losses than them in the regular season. That happened in 2022, but that team didn’t have Leonard, who is healthy now.

“I’ve been pushing to play every game, more minutes,” Leonard said. “You know, I’ve had an unfortunate past. And I’m just trying to do whatever it takes to … get to this offseason healthy. That’s my main focus right now.”

(Photo of Kawhi Leonard: Katsanis / Getty Images)