Kawhi Leonard Injury Status vs Blazers

That wound up being a smart call.

In a 126-67 blowout victory, Leonard certainly made his Nets game count. Playing just 23 minutes, the six-time All-Star scored a team-most 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field and 7-of-7 shooting from the charity stripe, two rebounds and a steal.

Leonard also notched a +46 plus-minus for his efforts, third-best on the team behind only center Ivica Zubac's +48 and shooting guard Powell's +47.

Leonard, 33, has missed all but four games thus far in 2024-25 while recuperating from knee inflammation.

The two-time Defensive Player of the Year is averaging just 21.3 minutes a night across his four games this year. In those minutes, he's logging fairly efficient 12.3 points on .429/.357/.800 shooting splits, 3.0 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 1.0 assists a night.

Portland and L.A. find themselves on two very different trajectories this season.

The Clippers have gotten off to a surprisingly robust 22-17 record this season, even without Leonard for much of it. L.A. is the Western Conference's fifth seed, and is just 1.5 contests behind the 24-16 Denver Nuggets for a potential playoff homecourt advantage.

At 13-26 and losers of three straight, the Trail Blazers have firmly established themselves as a team to watch in the ace to the bottom of the league standings. Portland is currently the West's No. 13 seed, and overall has the sixth-worst record in the NBA.

The goal is getting a top lottery pick ahead of this summer's draft for the fourth season in a row.

If anything the Trail Blazers want to lose as many games as possible — so playing a Clippers club without one of its best two-way players is not ideal, as it at least makes L.A. vulnerable.

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