Kawhi Leonard, Clippers resume practice amid Los Angeles wildfires
01/12/2025 10:37 PM
INGLEWOOD, CA — The Los Angeles Clippers returned to practice this weekend amid the ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles. Kawhi Leonard, who did not play in the Clippers’ last game on Wednesday against the Denver Nuggets, returned home to be with his family who evacuated from the Pacific Palisades area.
According to TMZ, Leonard’s home was not among those destroyed in the wreckage caused by the fire in the Palisades.
Kawhi Leonard, Clippers resume practice amid Los Angeles wildfires
The Clippers were originally scheduled to play Saturday evening against the Charlotte Hornets, but the fires in Los Angeles worsened as the weekend drew closer, leading the NBA to postpone both the Los Angeles Lakers’ home game against the San Antonio Spurs and the Clippers home game against the Hornets.
The following has been released by the NBA. pic.twitter.com/5cIz1BUFt7
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) January 11, 2025
“It's been tough, tough for our city, tough situation for all the families involved, for the friends, neighbors,” Clippers head coach said. “It's been tough, just dealing with every single day, just hearing about the people you know is dealing with things—getting evacuated, losing their houses, and it's a tough time for all of us. We've just been trying to practice these last couple days, just try to clear our mind as much as we can. But we know it's a tough situation, tough moments for a lot of guys involved, and we're just trying to fight through it the best way we can.”
Los Angeles has seen the Pacific Palisades fire, Eaton fire, Kenneth fire, and Hurst fire wipe out thousands of structures. Kawhi Leonard and his family evacuated their Palisades home, and a number of other Clippers staffers were forced to evacuate as well due to the threat of the fires.
“Our thoughts and prayers are out to everyone who's involved and just hopefully we can get through it,” Lue added. “The first responders, the firefighters have done a great job of just putting their lives on the line to try to make sure everyone's safe and doing the best that they can. So we really appreciate them as well.”
Kawhi Leonard attended practice on Sunday afternoon, but was not made available to the media. He was unlisted on the Clippers recent injury report for Saturday’s game against the Hornets prior to it being postponed.
In their last game against the Denver Nuggets, the Clippers lost, 126-103, and trailed by as many as 29 points in the game. From start to finish, the team looked like a team that wasn’t focused on the game. And even though players after the game said it wasn’t an excuse for their performance, Sunday offered a different perspective.
“That game in Denver was weird,” Nicolas Batum said to a group of reporters Sunday. “All day, I was on the phone with my family all day. I didn't sleep that night, too. You don't know what's going on, if the fire is going to go to your place. I think I slept two hours the night before.”
“I think I dropped my phone like three minutes before the game. I checked my phone at halftime. I never do that, but I checked at halftime, if my wife and kid were okay. But it was a weird time.”
Nicolas Batum on the night of the Denver game knowing the fires were creeping towards his house:
"The game in Denver was weird. The whole day. I was on my phone with my family all day. I didn't sleep that night [before]. We don't know what's going on, if the fire is going to go… pic.twitter.com/924Nnlso7x
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) January 12, 2025
Terance Mann also admitted that it was incredibly difficult to focus on the game.
“Yeah. To be honest, yeah. I’m not going to lie.
“People are still barely getting sleep. Some guys lost power, some guys got family stuff to figure out, some people’s kids’ schools burned down. There’s a lot going on, so it’s bigger than basketball right now. Way bigger than basketball.”
On Sunday afternoon, the NBA informed the Clippers, Lakers, Spurs, and Heat that Monday’s games scheduled for 7:30PM PST in Los Angeles will be played as scheduled. After three total games were postponed, the Clippers say it’s hard to focus on basketball, but also could see it helping the community take it’s mind off the surrounding tragedies.
“I think that we need that at some point,” Batum said. “We've been through some crazy stuff for the last five days. I think, maybe, people need that to get their mind off of it for two hours, two, three hours just to get into basketball, sports. I think people might need that, though.”
Tyronn Lue on what the Clippers have planned to help those affected by Los Angeles fires:
"We talked about it. There are some things that we're doing, but I don't know if I can say it right now… I talked to Mrs. Gillian about it this morning. We are doing things to make sure… pic.twitter.com/EgGAU4Fzpd
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) January 12, 2025
“It's not easy,” Mann added of playing through the Los Angeles wildfires. “Normally, the day before a game, I would go home and relax and kick my feet up and focus on the game. But, right now, I'm going to go help people out and donate and drive around and do what I can do to help. It's not easy, but it is what it is. I've watched the news more than I ever have in my life over the past three days. I was just actually on YouTube TV watching the news in the locker room, just trying to get updated on what's going on. It's the most I've ever done it.”
There’s still a lot of work and rebuilding to be done, especially in the Palisades and Altadena communities. The Lakers announced they’ll be hosting donation drives at their upcoming games. Tyronn Lue said the Clippers have something planned, but they were not ready to announce it at the time of the Clippers media availability.
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