Kawhi Leonard Is Still a Stone Cold Killer

This summer’s Olympics was centered around the generational trio of LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant going for one last ride. The post-Kobe and Shaq era is undoubtedly LeBron’s, and Durant and Steph have been special enough to nudge their way into his orbit, but we should not forget that Kawhi Leonard made it there too.

He reminded everyone that he can still be that dude last night in Game 2 of the highly anticipated first round series between the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Clippers. I lucked out with great seats behind the basket, way better than the ones I usually get, and I was preparing for a special night to watch Nikola Jokic’s genius up close for once. I did get what I came for with a ho-hum triple double for the world’s best player, but the price I paid for it was watching Kawhi hit jumper after jumper right in my eye. I keep scratching at it today, but I still can’t get it out. It’s there forever.

Kawhi Leonard scored 39 points last night on efficiency that would make Jokic guffaw. He missed four shots all game, and just one two pointer! The bane of analytics, the humble midrange jump shot, was why me and 20,000 of my closest friends walked out of the arena with our heads down last night. Kawhi taught us all a lesson that I feel compelled to spread to the masses today: this man is still a stone cold killer. I am become Shaq, Kawhi is also the mother fuckin’ truth. Don’t let Leonard’s injuries mask what otherwise would have pretty obviously been another all-time great career to turn this generation’s golden trio into a quad.

Kawhi is younger than LeBron, Steph and Durant, but his knees aren’t. He has been a limited and diminished version of his former self since his last full season in San Antonio in 2016-17, but he’s still a version of his former self which is way better than the vast majority of basketball players on this planet. The former back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year and two-time NBA Finals MVP annihilated the Nuggets last night, and unlike the stretch of cursed vibes that led my town’s resident sports billionaire to lose his damn mind, Denver played pretty good defense. It didn’t matter. Kawhi said so.

Kawhi spent the entire night proving the eternal basketball maxim true of “good offense beats good defense.” He opened the first half getting to that deadly elbow jumper he has made a career of, and I swear I saw only one of them hit the rim as they all went down. Denver’s defense collectively went “uh-oh” and shifted towards him the rest of the half, then he brought the Nuggets out behind the three-point line, and drove past them into the paint. It was a masterclass in establishing that you can and will do what everyone knows you want to do and then work counter moves off of that spot. He trapped the Nuggets in every circle of hell he could find.