Pacific Notes: Kawhi, Lakers, Crowder, Beal, Nurkic

Hair clippers forward Kawhi Leonard is making “good progress” in recovering from the right knee problem that sidelined him this fall and postponed his season debut, head coach Tyronn Lue told reporters on Friday (Twitter video link via Law Murray of The Athletic).

“He was able to get on the court and do some things on the court, which is good for us.” Lue said. “I’m still checking every box and making sure he’s doing the right things and that his training is really good. We make sure we don’t move on to the next step until he checks those boxes. Our medical staff has done a great job making sure he is 100% healthy when he returns.”

Below Paul GeorgeDue to the departure in free agency and without Leonard to open the season, the Clippers were not viewed as a serious Western Conference contender entering this season.

However, they have held their own in Kawhi’s absence, posting a 12-9 record in the first quarter of the season, good for eighth place in a highly competitive Western Conference. Lue said Friday that Leonard is “very excited” about what he’s seen from the team so far and looks forward to helping with his return. However, there is no set timeline for when this will happen.

Here’s more from the Pacific Division:

• When they were replaced D’Angelo Russell with Cam Reddish in their starting lineup at the start of this season, the Lakers tried to consolidate their defense. Their most recent change to the lineup – promoting rookies Dalton Knecht and Reddish’s return to the second unit suggests they are relying more on their greatest strength, their offensive firepower, says Khobi Price of The Orange County Register. Before the Lakers scored a season-low 93 points against the No. 1 NBA defense (Oklahoma City) on Friday, they had the fourth-best offensive rating in the league (116.3).
• James Ham of The Kings Beat takes a closer look at the newly added striker Jae Crowder brings to the table for them Kingsand pointed out that the 34-year-old is a defensive-minded veteran head coach Mike Brown likes to rely on it. Crowder expects to move from the starting five to the bench at some point DeMar DeRozan is healthy, but he will likely still get regular minutes, writes Ham.
• Suns guard Bradley Beal appears to have avoided a major setback after having to leave Wednesday’s game early due to calf and ankle soreness. As Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic relays (Twitter links), Beal (treatment for left calf injury) and Yusuf Nurkic (right quad contusion) are both officially listed as questionable for Saturday’s game against Golden State, but as head coaches Mike Budenholzer told reporters Friday that he viewed it as likely they would play.