Kawhi Leonard puts the fear of the basketball gods in the Denver Nuggets

From Rob MahoneyApril 22, 2:33 p.m. UTC • 5 min

Kawhi Leonard has already been lost in a way. If you didn’t see his career in the here and now, you would never believe how unstoppable he is. And even if you was Kawhi’s dominance was so scattered by an injury that they challenge our own collective memory. His work is incomprehensible. Leonard has a case as one of the largest basketball players who ever lived. He was also exceeded in his career by Rudy Gay, Monta Ellis and Antawn Jamison. None of this really adds up – until you create and do everything he wants at the highest level of competitive level in his most considerate and make Leonard.

It was five years ago since Leonard has ended a season for Los Angeles Clipplers. It has been four since he was recently a perfect playoff buzzsaw – and every trunk and every operation it seemed less likely that we would ever see this version again. Until he only appeared on Monday evening. Leonard pursued a pedestrian game 1 against the nuggets with one of his most undeniable performances: 39 points in the 15 von-19 shoot from the field, five templates and only one sales, Apex Predator Defense and every winning game so that the clipper get a 105-102 victory.

The Denver nuggets prevailed to orientate their offenses and maintain their distance. The Clippers just gave Leonard the ball. His game was always extremely simple, but never more than at night when it is clear that nothing can stop him. Aaron Gordon took over the task and played sound, committed and ultimately irrelevant defense. Denver shaded other defenders to Kawhi when he had the ball, cut the lanes and limited where he could go. It didn’t matter. Leonard works with such a ridiculous precision that he can thrive in every box in which you have put him. Reduce his space and it will simply consolidate his movements to fit them.

“I’m just focusing on the next piece and trying to win,” said Leonard after the game. “Take my shot and shoot and live with the result – whatever it is, how good or bad it is.” It’s all so easy if you can cut directly through the wild fluctuations of Playoff basketball. Both teams in this series have players who live between the high and crashed riding in whereabouts. Leonard is clear, characteristic unhindered.

Even in the pantheon of all shot brokers, there has never been a player like Kawhi. His movement industry should be examined – not in a film session, but for science. He creates an absurd amount of space with a single step. Its balance is perfect, especially for a player with such an extensive history of injuries with a lower body. His game is constructed from scratch and built in such a way that they withstand all examination. You can’t hurry Kawhi or bait him in an error. There is no pleasure in his approach; It’s just a question. When he is in a zone, Leonard moves with the certainty of the asteroid who wiped out the dinosaurs. What is the playoff adjustment for inevitable?

“Maybe we should feel overcrowded, but I think he is used to it,” said Nikola Jokic after the game. “He made hard pictures, but are you really hard recordings for him?”

Denver was able to catch Leonard more aggressively, as was sometimes in game 1 – but this risks for James Harden and the supporting clipper. The attempt to contain Leonard one to one and live with the consequences makes the nuggets susceptible to this type of outbreak. “When we get it and get him and Norman (Powell) get in the way and now switch to James in a degree – they play a hard game there,” said Nugget head coach David Adelman. “Because if you make a decision to make it, you say: Open recordings are somewhere. ““ Kawhi will not always Shoot 15 out of 19, but he will hit enough contested shots to challenge the determination of Denver and create the start in a Toss-Up series. After two games, the nuggets and clipper are separated by a single point. And within this razor -thin border, Kawhi appears out of nowhere on series change baskets. Just take a look at how he could from a broken drive to Wringen, who was in traffic after traffic, and culminated in a turn that was challenged to Gordon at the publication: and almost blocked:

Perhaps this is a confirmation of Denver’s strategy. If Leonard will take impossible recordings anyway, maybe the nuggets try to refuse everyone else? Perhaps it was not the 39 of Leonard who defeated Denver, but the 13 of Powell or the 16 from Ivica Zubac or even the single against the all-ODDS basket Kawhi for Ben Simmons. Perhaps the logical game is to put Kawhi in the box and know that he will break it. This is also easier said than done. For an opponent, it can be relaxing that Leonard hit the contested shot at competitive shot – the kind of belly that does more about a team than on the scoreboard. It is also the reason why opposing fans often find the experience of observing Leonard as a visceral. See enough of these recordings and terror will assume every dribble.

In a transition sequence in the fourth quarter, Leonard met a back pedaling gordone with such a sophisticated streetback that the Nugget’s striker could only watch when the shot rose. It was not nearly as dramatic as the movements they would see from Harden or Jamal Murray – ruthlessly in his ease. It will not be the last time that Gordon and the Nuggets have to tip their hat and go to the next game, but it is difficult not to feel Kawhi’s shot accumulation. Every defender can live with an opponent who goes one to one, but life at 15 out of 19 is a completely different challenge. And beyond: join in The Kawhi Leonard for seven games requires radical acceptance of what will come.

The necessary health -related restrictions apply, but this is not the last time in this series that Kawhi can no longer be stopped regardless of the nuggets. It is what he does. It is who he is, even after all these injuries and all the years. The only way for Denver is to consider it the only way to survive it.

Rob Mahoney

Rob covers the NBA and pop culture for the wrestler. Previously, he reported the league for Sports Illustrated.