Kawhi Leonard’s various injuries have kept him from playing in back-to-backs for nearly four years now, but that finally changed this week.
The Los Angeles Clippers forward successfully played on back-to-back nights Tuesday and Wednesday. That’s the first time he’s done that since April 2017, when he was still a member of the San Antonio Spurs. Leonard made clear that he intends to keep playing in back-to-backs going forward as well.
“I mean, I think I’ll be playing, pretty much,” Leonard said Wednesday, via Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. “The last few years, I was injured, and I worked on getting my leg stronger, and it’s been a long time. But I was patient, and I’m able to play.”
Clippers coach Ty Lue admitted that Leonard was a bit fatigued early in the second game of the back-to-back against Golden State, but felt fine afterwards. He scored 21 points in 35 minutes in that game Wednesday.
Leonard has at times been scrutinized for his infamous “load management.” There were, however, signs that the team was ready to start backing away from that toward the end of last season. Now it looks like they have once and for all.
