After spending the past nine months dealing with injuries, Kawhi Leonard said that returning to the court for the Los Angeles Clippers was the easy part.
Leonard played 19 minutes and scored 12 points in his first game of the season on Saturday night, helping the Clippers defeat the Atlanta Hawks 131-105.
The six-time All-Star missed the first 34 games of the season due to recovery from a right knee injury. It was his first NBA game since April 26, when he played in Game 3 of the Clippers’ first-round playoff series against Dallas.
“We did the right steps to get me to this point,” Leonard said. “Playing basketball was the easy part of it. This is what I love to do. The hard part is not playing and having the rehab and not competing with my teammates.”
Leonard started the game and received a big round of applause from the crowd at the Intuit Dome. He made a 3-pointer on his first shot from the left wing with 9:57 left in the first quarter, tying the game at 5-5.
Leonard finished the game shooting 4 of 11 from the field, including three 3-pointers, and added three rebounds and one assist.
Both Leonard and head coach Tyronn Lue emphasized taking things slow as Leonard works his way back into shape.
“I took the shots that I got. Anybody watching that wants me to score 20 or 30 points and be aggressive, we are not on no one’s timeframe,” Leonard said. “We know what’s ahead of us and we have to keep building in the right direction. We were facing it like a preseason game tonight and we’ll keep moving the same way until I’m able to build up my minutes.”
Lue didn’t say exactly how long Leonard would be on a minutes restriction but believed his first game back went well. He added that having Leonard on the floor helped make things easier for everyone.
“Just want him to ease into it. Didn’t want to force feed him. I thought our guys did a good job of not just sitting around watching him play and just continue to play the game,” Lue said. “It was good to have him, now we just have to continue to keep building off of it.”
Leonard has missed 290 regular-season games in the last eight years, including missing the entire 2021-22 season due to knee issues after an injury during the 2021 Western Conference semifinals against Utah.
If Saturday’s performance is any indication, the Clippers could surprise people in the Western Conference if they are at full strength. LA broke open the game in the second quarter and at one point led by 27 points.
“With Kawhi on the floor, he can draw so much attention, double team and things like that. I’m able to finally get some catch-and-shoot 3s, play off rotation, being able to attack the basket, so it’s a lot easier,” said guard Norman Powell, who scored 20 points.
“And just defensively, where we’ve been playing and our defensive identity this year even before Kawhi came out today, I think it fits him perfectly and makes it hard for teams because we got so many guys that can switch and guard and defend one-on-one and now you got the help side, so I’m really excited. First game, he looked really good, so just continue to build on that.”
The Clippers currently have a 20-15 record and are in seventh place in the Western Conference. However, only 2 1/2 games separate the second through seventh place teams. With Paul George moving to Philadelphia and Leonard missing part of the season, the Clippers weren’t expected to be five games above .500 at this point.
Lue, however, stressed that there is still a lot of time left in the regular season.
“A lot of room for improvement. We can get better,” Lue said. “Our guys have done a great job. James (Harden), Norm and Zu (Ivica Zubac) have really done a good job at just showing their veteran leadership but also carrying this team.
Now we just got to be ready to build off of this. We’ve done a good job at holding it down until Kawhi got back, but now we got to continue to take those next steps to be a great team.”
