Clippers’ Tyronn Lue planning on Kawhi Leonard for Game 1 against Dallas
Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said Wednesday he is preparing for Kawhi Leonard to play in Sunday’s Game 1 against the Dallas Mavericks, although his practice time has been limited.
“We just take it day by day,” Lue said. “He’s progressing. He’s getting better, and we’ll see how much he continues to progress.”
It was Lue’s most positive and strongest indication that Leonard would play for the first time in more than three weeks.
The coach said the two-time NBA champion, who has been dealing with inflammation in his surgically repaired right knee, looked good after taking part in a quarter of Tuesday’s drills. Lue said practice consisted of a walkthrough of five plays, station work, half-court play and five-on-five.
Leonard did not play in the five-on-five drills, though, Lue said.
Lue is clearly frustrated with the constant questions surrounding Leonard’s status, apologizing to the media for his short answers. Leonard has not played since March 31 against the Charlotte Hornets, sitting out the final eight regular-season games and has not spoken to the media since his last game.
“I know it’s your guys’ job, but like I said we just take it day by day,” Lue said. “He’s progressing. He’s getting better. We don’t have a timetable.”
Lue said whether Leonard will play will be left to the medical staff.
“Whatever is the best thing for Kawhi, making sure you protect him first,” Lue said. “But whatever is best for him is what we’re going to do. Not sure of the minutes yet, or how long he’ll be able to play, so we’re just kind of waiting and taking it day by day.”
If Leonard, a central part of the Clippers’ defense, doesn’t play, the rest of the team will need to step up if they have any hope of slowing Luka Donic. The MVP candidate is averaging a league-best 33.9 points, 9.2 rebounds and 9.8 assists and is shooting 38.3% from the 3-point range, for the Mavs, who finished the regular season winning 16 of their final 20 games.
“(We are) super locked in. Like we know what’s ahead of us,” Clippers guard James Harden said. “Obviously Dallas is very, very important. They’re very skilled. They got two elite scorers and playmakers. So, we know what’s ahead. I think for us it’s just making sure that we’re all on the same page, knowing we’re trying to tackle both ends of the ball and then going out there and executing just doing what we’ve been doing all year. I think we’re all excited for this opportunity.”
Lue said Mavericks can be dangerous if Doncic gets on a roll, which would leave the Clippers few options to contain him. If they can take away his easy shots, and cut his assists and rebounds, they have a better chance to beat the Mavericks in the best-of-seven series.
“You just got to kind of pick your poison and kind of see how the night’s going, see what he has going that night and then kind of take it from there,” Lue said. “But if he has those 40-point games and he is having 15 or 16 assists, you are in for a long night.
“So, you can’t let it deflate you. I think we all know he’s going to make tough step backs; he’s going to make crazy shots. That’s what he does. But we can’t let it deflate us. If we’re playing our right defense, we’re doing our right coverages and if we got to adjust, of course we’ll adjust, but we can’t let it deflate us.”
Still, it can be demoralizing to watch a player go off. Doncic has scored 40 or more points 12 times this season, including a 73-point performance against the Atlanta Hawks on Jan. 26 and a 50-point game against the Phoenix Suns on Dec. 25.
“It’s not easy just watching a guy score that much and stuff like that, but he’s an incredible player,” Clippers center Ivica Zubac said. “He’s going to get his most of the time. We have to make it tough. We got to make it really tough for him – wear him down on both ends and just (have) next-play mentality.
“They’re going to make shots, they’re going to make plays and we just got to know, we got to stay locked in into what we’re trying to do defensively at what we are willing to give up and execute our stuff offensively. And I think we should be good.”