Kawhi Leonard delivers strong message after win vs. Bucks

The LA Clippers have been climbing up the Western Conference standings all season after starting the year with a 6-21 record. With Kawhi Leonard leading the charge, the Clippers have been able to reach .500 once again at 36-36 entering their final 10 games of the season.

The 2025-26 season has probably been the most impressive of Leonard’s career when factoring in his career-high scoring in addition to the number of injuries and franchise-altering moves the team made at the NBA trade deadline. Leonard has already been the Clippers’ leader with his work ethic and incredible in-game performances, but that’s been elevated even further with everything that’s transpired thus far.

“This group likes to play basketball,” Kawhi Leonard said when asked about his leadership style with this new-look Clippers team. “They love to have fun out there and compete. And we’re not scared of nobody. Even if they’re more talented or the record’s better, we still want to go out and compete and try to have pride in playing and being competitive out there.”

This Clippers season has seen allegations of salary cap circumvention, a season-ending Bradley Beal injury, Chris Paul get sent home in the middle of the night during a road trip, the trades of James Harden and the longest tenured Clipper in Ivica Zubac, the arrival of Darius Garland, Bennedict Mathurin, and Isaiah Jackson, as well as the season-ending injury to Yanic Konan Niederhauser.

Through all that, the Clippers have been bright spots, particularly in their younger players like Niederhauser, Kobe Sanders, and Jordan Miller.

“It’s a lot of young guys or guys that’s getting a lot of minutes in different roles this year that are stepping up. So we’ve just got to tell them to enjoy that moment, but even at times when we’re down or if the calls ain’t going our way, it’s just basketball at the end of the day and it never goes your way. So just keep one foot in front of the other and just play and have fun.”

After there being some initial skepticism about the Clippers’ ability to compete following the Harden and Zubac trades, Darius Garland has quickly shut that down with his stellar play.

“It’s always great to get help,” Leonard added. “Darius getting back in the lineup and being the star that he is over the past years and coming in and still being great for us, having 40 the other night, him getting the crowd going with his threes and passing and just his overall energy and, yeah, waiting on Ben to get back. But it’s just a new challenge, I think, for everyone. Every year is different. And, yeah, just try to come in and be competitive and just release positive energy to everybody, really.”

In 56 appearances this season, Kawhi Leonard has averaged a career-high 28.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and 2.0 steals per game while shooting 50.4 percent from the field, 38.5 percent from three, and 90.1 percent from the free throw line.

Leonard has missed 16 of the Clippers’ 72 games this season, so he’s only allowed to miss one more game before he’ll become ineligible for end-of-season NBA awards like All-NBA teams and All-Defense teams.