Clippers Advance To Second Round Behind Kawhi Leonard’s Supreme Mid-Range Display

It didn’t come without adversity and it sure wasn’t free of animosity. But, the Los Angeles Clippers advanced to the second round of the 2020 Playoffs on Sunday afternoon, defeating the Dallas Mavericks in Game 6 of a back-and-forth series.

The adversity is something they didn’t expect to face in the opening round, having taken care of Dallas pretty handily in all three regular season meetings. Doc Rivers and the Clippers were quick to find out, though, there is no easy method of shutting down a top-seven player on the planet when the slate is wiped clean and it’s do-or-die time.

Guarding Luka Dončić was no picnic for a team full of versatile and switchy wing defenders, as the sophomore MVP candidate averaged 31 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 8.7 assists on an elite 59.6% true shooting across the six games. In a 2-2 split after four games, facing a confident Mavs unit that’s playing with house money can be a dangerous situation for a title contender. The Mavs weren’t expected to be this competitive in year one of the Dončić-Porzingis era, but their offense was so fruitful and adept at creating open threes that it helped them overachieve.

If you’re the Clippers, this can also be the type of adversity (or challenge) that helps a team in later rounds, giving them an early taste of defending a generational talent and all of the necessary adjustments that come with containing a singular force.

The animosity grew as the series progressed. As the number of technicals piled up and hard playoff fouls turned into flagrant hits across the face, the two teams certainly got sick of each other. It culminated in Marcus Morris getting ejected late in the first quarter on Sunday after whacking Dončić (twice) on a drive toward the rim. The 21-year-old went down, Morris provided a quick taunt with a few words, and the refs deemed it a hostile act in the form of a flagrant 2.

Without Morris, the Clippers had to lean more on Landry Shamet and JaMychal Green on the wings. Shamet logged his series-high in minutes (38) while providing perimeter spacing for the Clippers’ ball-handlers to attack the middle.

Much like their matchups with Dallas all year, Kawhi Leonard made it known in Game 6 that no Mavericks defender had a chance to wall him off. The only way to prevent Leonard from destroying your defense is to keep him from getting into his preferred spots and crowding his space in the mid-range. To do that, defenders must have the right combination of height and length to contest his pull-ups, possess the adequate speed to protect the drive after he crosses over, and be strong enough to absorb the multiple body bumps he’s giving you along the way.

It’s a lot to ask, with each requirement eliminating every form of defender the Mavericks have. Maxi Kleber did a standup job for most of the series, sticking with Leonard on every post move and forcing him to finish over the top. The problem Kleber ran into was the speed and power discrepancy, as Leonard would routinely create the inches of space he needed to get clean looks inside the floater range.

With Dorian Finney-Smith on him, Leonard was matched with someone that could mirror his movements and stay attached, but it was still a clear advantage after the reigning Finals MVP used his shoulders and upper-body power to get free. In the next round, the Nuggets or Jazz would have Jerami Grant or Royce O’Neale as stronger isolation defenders to hold their ground and give tighter contests on Leonard’s usual looks.

In his 40 minutes of play on Sunday, Leonard put the pedal to the metal on both ends of the court to ensure the Mavericks would be flying home this week. He finished with 33 points, 14 rebounds, seven assists, and five steals while shooting 13-of-19 on two-pointers, just 1-of-4 from deep, and 4-of-4 at the foul line.

It was only the sixth game in playoff history with a player recording at least 30 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, and five steals. Those may seem like arbitrary figures, but it speaks to the determination and well-rounded nature of a player to make the opponent feel his presence everywhere on the floor. Plus, for there to only be six players in league history to achieve such a line, it clearly carries some importance.

Those six players, sorted by Basketball-Reference’s “Game Score” metric, which approximates a player’s total value contributed in a single game:

• Patrick Ewing – May 4th, 1990: 44 points, 13 rebounds, 5 assists, 7 steals on 78.7% true shooting, 46.4 Game Score
• Michael Jordan – May 13th, 1989: 40 points, 15 rebounds, 9 assists, 6 steals on 65.1% true shooting, 41.4 Game Score
• Gary Payton – May 3rd, 2000: 35 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists, 6 steals on 62.9% true shooting, 34.8 Game Score
• Charles Barkley – April 29, 1986: 31 points, 20 rebounds, 6 assists, 6 steals on 62.7% true shooting, 34.5 Game Score
• Kawhi Leonard – August 30, 2020: 33 points, 14 rebounds, 7 assists, 5 steals on 66.6% true shooting, 33.6 Game Score
• Scottie Pippen – June 12, 1991: 32 points, 13 rebounds, 7 assists, 5 steals on 58.7% true shooting, 28.1 Game Score

After Leonard’s knockout performance, Rivers touched on the sense of relief the Clippers had to be able to unleash a tier-one star in crunch time. Although Rivers has coached unbelievable offensive talents and go-to scorers that could lift his Clippers and Celtics in the fourth quarter, this is the first time he’s been able to coach the best player in the league. With a game or series on the line, Leonard has justified that claim – and his reputation – by finishing off his opponents in dominant fashion.

“You can tell he was the one guy that was used to closing out a series,” Rivers said. “He was calm. He got us in place. You know, during games you fall on a set and we fell on that little elbow set for him. He just took what was there. If they didn’t come to help, he scored. If they came, he made the right pass.”

In what has been a common theme all season, with Leonard setting a career-high in assist percentage (26.4%), it’s the passing and court-vision that continues to impress his head coach. Coming into the season, Leonard’s top offensive strength was clearly his shot creation. And it still is. But, most have glossed over his improved skills as a playmaker and his willingness to find open shooters or rim-rolling bigs once he bends a defense.

With Leonard’s astounding efficiency inside of 15 feet, it’s not difficult to see why his passing volume has increased over the last two years. Before he turned the corner into superstardom, he wasn’t drawing as much help from weak-side defenders, he wasn’t seeing teams load up by shading him in the post, and he certainly wasn’t being trapped coming off ball-screens. All it took was time for him to develop this new reputation of being a dynamic scorer. Once that happened, the floor started to open up and, consequently, the passing angles started to appear.

Leonard’s pick-and-roll passing was forming into a real threat in Toronto. He consistently made the proper reads and was able to stretch defenses too thin for their liking. After signing with the Clippers, he gained a couple more shooting options and two young, aggressive rim-runners (Zubac and Harrell) that could put added pressure on the paint.

Over the course of this first-round series, he accumulated 31 assists to just eight bad-pass turnovers. In Game 6, he set up Shamet for two of his three made triples and fed Zubac for three of his six buckets inside. For the entire series, Shamet was 10-of-17 (58.8%) from the field with Leonard as the direct passer, while Zubac was 8-of-13 (61.5%).

“Before the game, I think I was talking to P.J. Carlesimo and I was telling him, the one thing I didn’t know — I knew (Leonard) could pass and I knew he may be a good passer,” Rivers said. “I didn’t know he was an elite passer, and that’s something you don’t know until you coach a guy.”

The enhanced ability to find open teammates due to his own halfcourt gravity is significant for the Clippers’ long-term success and will come into play as they advance deeper into the playoffs. This is especially true in a potential series with the Lakers, where both teams’ stars may cancel each other out in production. It’ll likely be up to the role players to decide critical moments in that matchup, and that’s where the depth disparity between the L.A. teams will be highlighted.

Regardless of how Leonard’s passing tendencies have shifted in the last two years, his creation in the mid-range and the unrelenting search for easy opportunities (whether that means seeking mismatches, or drawing fouls on drives) are the primary reasons his team will be favored to win any series this year.

His volume and efficiency in the playoffs have always taken a leap from regular season play. So far, after just six games, that appears to be the case again. Against the Mavericks, Leonard shot 20-of-24 in his favorite zone (10-14 feet from the basket), which is just an hysterical 83.3% rate. Factoring in all of his attempts within 14 feet, including those at the rim, he was 50-of-71 (70.4%) in the series:

He’s experienced some trouble finding his outside stroke to begin this playoff run, shooting just 10-of-32 (31.3%) on three-pointers with at least six feet of space, per Second Spectrum’s player tracking.

Yet, he averaged a scintillating 32.8 points on 63.9% true shooting in the first round, which brings his playoff average to 27.6 points since the 2014-15 postseason – the one after he won Finals MVP as a “role player.”

His efficiency breakdown over the last five postseason runs (11 total series) doesn’t even seem like reality. Leonard has converted 74.2% of his looks at the rim, 45.1% of his attempts within 10 feet, and 49.0% of his long mid-range jumpers.

If he draws contact and heads to the free throw line, which he’s done 7.8 times per game dating back to the 2015 playoffs, he’s making over 87% of those. There is no easy answer against him in the halfcourt, especially when he’s generating the same amount of free throw opportunities as Kevin Durant in the last five playoff runs.

The Durant comparison is now a legitimate one, which is a testament to how polished Leonard’s offensive repertoire has become in such a short amount of time. Durant, who is statistically the most effective and versatile scorer the league has ever seen, is still the best three-level scorer (close, intermediate, and long range) on the planet when healthy. But, with how easy Leonard makes it look despite not having the luxury of towering over defenders to same degree, he is arguably the runner-up.

The most impressive part of Leonard’s first-round series versus Dallas was how he completely brushed off any contact while charging into the paint. He wasn’t visibly affected by any of it. He recorded 111 total “drives” inside the paint in six games (18.5 per game, a lot higher than his 13.4 regular-season average). On those 111 drives, this is the damage he did to the Mavericks:

• 36-of-50 when taking a shot (72.0%)
• 41 passes out of the drive (leading to 7 assists)
• 20-of-22 (90.9%) on free throws when Dallas fouled him on the drive
• Only four turnovers

For proper perspective, Dončić was 40-of-68 (58.8%) while attempting a shot after a drive in this series. Donovan Mitchell, who the Clippers may see next, is currently 32-of-55 (58.2%) while driving to the basket in his series versus Denver. Leonard made up for his lack of perimeter touch by basically bullying the entire defense in the paint.

“Kawhi is a man of business,” George said after the Game 6 victory. “He stepped up. He stepped in. I mean, time after time, whenever we needed him, he put us on his back. He finished the series. I can’t say it enough. I mean, after this series, he is the most reliable guy. It’s his shot-making, just his time on awareness plays, he’s just one of a kind.”

The Clippers will have to wait until Tuesday night to know who they will square off with in round two, as the Nuggets and Jazz are headed to Game 7. It gives L.A. a four-day break, not including practice. Their next series will tip-off on Thursday, Sept. 3, but it’s safe to assume Rivers will have the team going over film of the entire Nuggets-Jazz series in the meantime.

“You always celebrate (any win),” Leonard said. “I mean, you could be going home right now. It’s one step closer to where we want to get to, so it’s a good accomplishment that we got through the first round.”

If his scoring prowess continues to look this unshakeable, much like it has in the postseason for the last few years, Leonard will have plenty of future wins to celebrate inside the bubble. Since his 2017 season as an MVP candidate, he has proven that it doesn’t matter which team he’s on – opponents still haven’t developed a formula to stop him from tilting a series in his direction.