Swanson: Kawhi Leonard's return sparks hope, even in Clippers' loss

24/04/2024 17:00

LOS ANGELES — Leave it to Tyronn Lue to sit at a podium wearing a smug little grin after a playoff loss.

What, Lue worry? Not three years ago, when the Clippers were down 2-0 after consecutive home losses in a first-round playoff series against these Dallas Mavericks. And certainly not now, with this first-round series tied 1-1 heading to Dallas for Games 3 and 4 on Friday and Sunday.

No sir, as Lue would say. He's not sweating Tuesday night's 96-93 loss at Crypto.com Arena. He's not fretting about the Clippers' rugged 36.8% shooting effort, including an 8-for-30 night from 3-point range that only a playoff game could justify.

Lue could shrug it off because he got to bring his rock star to Tuesday's rock fight.

And that rocked.

And even though Kawhi Leonard wasn't great after right knee inflammation caused him to spend 23 days recovering without basketball action, he was OK.

And OK is great.

Losing a winnable game at home in a seven-game playoff series against a tough opponent might seem solely like a step backward, but having Leonard in the lineup again was also a giant step forward for the fourth-seeded Clippers.

A boon to their chances of winning a championship – and, more immediately, of effectively dueling with Luka Doncic and his fifth-seeded Dallas Mavericks, who got 32 points and nine assists from their leading man.

The Clippers could counter Dallas' demonstrative king of the court with their deliberate king, who torched the Mavs in their wild seven-game series in 2021, averaging 32.1 points on 61.2% shooting.

So while Doncic offered his usual running commentary Tuesday, chatter directed at officials and teammates, opponents and fans, Leonard spoke sparingly, emoted rarely, and tallied 15 points on 7-for-17 shooting – taking more attempts than anyone else on his team.

That went with seven rebounds and four steals from the quick-mitted star, whose instincts were on point, even as he got winded and fought to find his rhythm.

Kawhi Leonard getting introduced to a fully packed Clippers postseason crowd for the first time in Los Angeles. pic.twitter.com/VODzy5SFDO

— Justin Russo (@FlyByKnite) April 24, 2024

It was, as fate had it, Leonard's home playoff debut before a full Clippers crowd, supporters who gave him an appropriately rousing reception when he was introduced, or when he kicked off an eight-point third quarter with a steal and a slam, or when he bulldozed inside for a rebound and putback over several other players …

The other Clippers home playoff games – or "home" playoff games – in Leonard's tenure since he signed on in 2019, occurred either in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, in the Orlando bubble or in a mostly empty Crytpo.com Arena, or after he'd been injured and was unavailable.

So, having the 32-year-old wing out there Tuesday felt to Lue like a blessing: "Yeah, I feel great having my guys healthy, ready to play. I feel really good about that."

Leonard's All-Star running mate Paul George concurred: "Yeah, I feel good. I mean, y'all know this. Kawhi is one of the best in the world. He's going to find his rhythm. We're going to find our rhythm around him.

"I don't ever like to take or look at the moral victories," George went on. "We lost, which is frustrating and upsetting. But it is great having '2' back out there with us."

Leonard didn't process his return in quite the same way, seemingly not programmed to analyze the introspective parts – or, at least, not to share such analysis publicly: "I mean, I guess I don't think I think of it like that. I'm just taking it one game at a time and we are trying to win a series, so that's not my thought process right now."

It's a process that gives the Clippers two days before the next game for Leonard to both recover from Tuesday's 35-minute headfirst dive off the 10-meter platform into the playoffs – and to continue to ramp up for the next one. He'll have a couple of days to work on rediscovering that rhythm within the game and with teammates who, without him, won Game 1, 109-97, and who notched quality victories over Denver, Cleveland and Phoenix late in the regular season.

Teammates who were holding it down, George said, well aware that without Leonard, their run won't last as long as it could with him.

"Yeah, both of us are healthy," George said. "We've got a great unit around us and so yeah, I think we take it back to the (2021) year (when Leonard suffered a torn right anterior cruciate ligament in the second round of what became a Western Conference finals run.) That was a glimpse of what we could have done before Kawhi went down. But we got another shot at it and we feel good about that."

What matters more than almost anything now for the Clippers? That Leonard feels good.