282 days later, it’s a sentence that can still leave fans shaking their heads in disbelief: Kawhi Leonard is a Toronto Raptor.
With that, comes the opportunity to watch one of the NBA’s top talents of this era — a reality that’s only become more clear during the playoffs as Leonard’s game has risen to the moment.
He resumes his role of ‘best player in the series’ on Saturday night.
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“I think we’re kind of jaded to the point that we get to see it every day,” Fred VanVleet told reporters on Friday afternoon at the Raptors practice facility, one day before his team faces the Philadelphia 76ers to tip-off the second round of the playoffs.
Leonard dominated in Round 1, systematically tearing apart his opponent on both ends of the floor and posting the best single-series performance of any Raptors player in history. In the process, he’s had a noticeable impact on the way his teammates approach the game, one that could give the Raps a noticeable edge in this series.
It’s not something you can exactly quantify, unlike, say, his 13-0 record against the 76ers during his career. This past season he was particularly cruel to Philly and feasted on Ben Simmons in particular, averaging four steals per game against the division rivals.
That is bound to be a huge source of confidence heading into Game 1, right?
“I really don’t think about it,” Leonard said on Friday.
Alright, then.
“What we just talked about is just regular season. The game is played a little differently in the playoffs.”
The playoff version of the Sixers will be a little different, too. The team added Tobias Harris at the NBA’s trade deadline, adding a fourth all-star calibre player to a lineup already featuring Joel Embiid, Simmons, and early-season acquisition Jimmy Butler.
“We know what their sets are gonna be,” said Kyle Lowry, “but at the end of the day it’s gonna be Ben, Joe, Tobias, JJ, and Jimmy. They’ve got a good team. Knowing their individuals and personnel is huge in this series.”
The Sixers lineup features a number of big personalities, extroverts who show their emotions on their sleeves.
Embiid thrives when mixing it up with opponents and is famously a colossal trash-talker. Simmons is hardly afraid to do the same.
Upon thorough research, role player Mike Scott appears to be the star of several YouTube videos featuring him fighting opponents (or whatever the NBA’s version of fighting is called). And then of course there’s Butler, whose, um, dramatic exit from Minnesota brought him to Philly where he’ll play the part of overqualified X-factor in this series.
Sixers games are not boring. Exhibit A: Round 1:
VanVleet expects the 76ers to enter Scotiabank Arena with a ton of confidence and knows when the team travels to play in Philadelphia in front of a typically present crowd that have already turned on their own team once this post-season, things won’t get any easier. “We know the history and tradition of what Philly brings to the table,” he says, “but I still think we have the best fans in the league.”
Don’t forget — these two teams have history stemming from last season, when Simmons challenged Lowry to meet in the arena tunnel after both players were both ejected, and Lowry quickly acquiesced.
Simmons told Lowry to meet him in the tunnel pic.twitter.com/1VLrOd8I9O
— Made For Philly (@MadeForPhilly) January 15, 2018
“It’s gonna be fun,” Lowry said. “It’s a good series. There’s talent all over the place.”
Combine it all with the natural intensity of the playoffs, and it’s fair to expect an emotional series — that’s where Leonard plays a part well beyond scoring buckets and getting stops.
“His approach is really, really focused and I think we as a team have taken a lot from him,” said Lowry. “No highs, no lows, just going straight for it. That’s one thing he’s brought here is that straight focus.”
It’s that disciplined, no-drama, no-distraction mindset that has helped Leonard refine his game over the years and helps him to thrive in the highest-pressure situations.
Leonard is clearly making an impression on his teammates.
“Being around somebody every day you get to learn about a person. He’s a great guy,” Lowry said. “As a basketball player he’s really, really good. He loves basketball, and he really loves to play. He loves hooping, going out on the floor, to work out, prepare for the game, watching the film. He’s always ready to go come game time.”
“He’s really good,“ Lowry laughs in summation. “What he can do defensively, it’s crazy. It’s pretty cool.”
“My first impression was just how hard he worked every day, working on his craft and picking his spots,” VanVleet said of Leonard, adding that he was surprised by how good he was offensively and was “blown away” by Kawhi’s three-point shooting in particular.
But there’s something — on full display in Round 1 — that separates Leonard from his peers.
“That killer instinct,” said VanVleet. “The biggest thing that I saw in the last series was that you could see him just taking those guys’ spirits away. No matter what they did it didn’t really faze or affect him and he was able to break their will a little bit. That’s what superstars do.”
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