Kawhi Leonard took the final shot of his pregame routine Saturday and ran off the Intuit Dome court. With fans chanting, “Kawhi! Kawhi! Kawhi!” he glanced up at the crowd and pointed his finger in acknowledgment before running into the tunnel toward the locker room.
It was a rare show of excitement by a player usually devoid of emotion.
Leonard had reason to be joyful because he was about to make his season debut after missing 34 games because of inflammation in his right knee.
Leonard started and played a total of 19 minutes, finishing with 12 points and three rebounds for the Clippers in a 131-105 rout of the Atlanta Hawks in front of a crowd that seemed to appreciate having the healthy All-Star back in action.
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Leonard was on a minutes restriction in his first game back in eight months, but the Clippers (20-15) didn’t need much from him once they built a 20-point lead at halftime. He made his first shot, a three-pointer from the wing with 9:58 left in the first quarter, and finished four for 11 from the field and three for five from three-point range.
“This is like his preseason, it’s like his training camp, because he hasn’t had that,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said before the game. “So, everybody that is playing tonight had a training camp. They’ve played 30, 35 games and so we are going to treat it like a preseason. Like, we’re going to make sure we bring him back slowly, make sure he’s feeling well, make sure we don’t get any of the swelling back.
“It’s a great step in the right direction tonight. We got to make sure we’re doing it the right way, and I have full confidence in our medical staff that we’ll do that.”
Leonard played in just two of the Clippers’ six playoff games against the Mavericks in April. He worked out with USA Basketball in July for the Paris Olympics, but was sent home because of his knee.
That led to a long, arduous rehabilitation for Leonard that included plenty of five-on-five practices.
Lue said they grew encouraged after Leonard spent the past few days playing five on five with the San Diego Clippers, L.A.’s G League team.
“This is the most serious he’s taken playing five on five and pickup since he’s been here over the course of doing his rehab,” Lue said. “But he really went full speed. He was really locked in on just testing it out, seeing how he felt. He really did a good job in his rehabbing process and just making sure that we checked every box, because if he didn’t go hard we wouldn’t let him come back.”
The Clippers are basically whole now, with Leonard and key reserve Terance Mann back. Mann, who finished with 12 points on five-for-five shooting, had missed 11 games with a finger injury.
With so many options at his disposal, James Harden had 13 of his 15 assists by halftime. Norman Powell led the Clippers with 20 points on eight-of-16 shooting.
Trae Young led Atlanta (18-18) with 20 points, 14 assists and four rebounds.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
