{"id":119080,"date":"2025-01-20T09:15:36","date_gmt":"2025-01-20T14:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=119080"},"modified":"2026-03-10T23:18:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T03:18:43","slug":"leonard-return-from-injury-changes-western-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/20\/leonard-return-from-injury-changes-western-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"New Western Contender Emerges With Return Of Injured Star"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Kawhi Leonard<\/a> injury limited the potential of the Los Angeles Clippers to start the season. They did fare surprisingly well though, behind the solid play of James Harden<\/a> and Norman Powell<\/a> combined with a stifling defense. Even though the Clippers were able to fight themselves into solid playoff positioning without their oft-injured star, their ability to contend at the top of the Western Conference standings without him is very unlikely. In Kawhi\u2019s most recent performance<\/a> in the Lakers vs Clippers game, he continued to show how the Clippers could be a real threat if he stays healthy. Is it possible that this Kawhi Leonard return from injury could reshape the NBA playoff picture?<\/span><\/p>\n

New Western Contender Emerges With Return Of Injured Star<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Did Kawhi Leonard\u2019s Injury Help?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Before the season, if someone had told Clippers\u2019 fans that Leonard was going to miss the first 34 games of the season, they would have thought their season was over. Instead, the Clippers are 24-17 and have won four games in a row. The Clippers have the <\/span>number two-rated defense<\/span><\/a> in the entire NBA this season. That is all without arguably their best defender playing in just five games thus far!<\/span><\/p>\n

It seems like the Clippers not only weathered Leonard\u2019s injury, but they thrived in his absence. They built a team based on a defensive identity that would succeed with or without their stars in the lineup every night.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, the Clippers are adding Leonard to that team. They are 4-1 in games Leonard has played this season. If Leonard can continue to play into shape while the Clippers’ cohesive team and stingy defense hold things down, things could get scary for the rest of the league.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Lakers vs Clippers Game<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In Sunday\u2019s game against the Lakers, Leonard tied a season-high playing 24 minutes, and he contributed 19 points on 9-for-13 shooting, his second-best scoring output since his return from injury. The game was also his best performance against another Western Conference contender, the Clippers rival in the Lakers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Games like this show that the Clippers could be a real team to worry about. If Leonard can stay on the court, nobody would want to face the Clippers in the playoffs. <\/span>Leonard recently said<\/span><\/a> about his play,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still easing me into the game. We\u2019re on nobody\u2019s, I guess, timetable. Anybody watching, that wants me to score 20 or 30 points or be aggressive, we are not on no one\u2019s time frame. We know what\u2019s ahead of us, and we have to keep building in the right direction.<\/span><\/p>\n

If the Clippers manage this situation well, they could become dangerous.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Clippers’ Chances at Contention<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Right now the Clippers are long shots to win the NBA championship<\/a>. <\/span>FanDuel <\/span>has their odds at just +4500. They are tied for the 10th-best odds team to win it all. That being said, with the second-best defense in the league, it is hard to ignore the possibility of an underdog run from the Clippers. They always say, defense wins championships.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since Leonard\u2019s return from injury, the Clippers have been hot. Their defense hasn\u2019t taken a step back, and all of a sudden they\u2019ve added a 20-point per-game threat to their offense. The Western Conference is full of some pretty brutal opponents, but we\u2019ve seen Leonard lead an underdog team to championship heights. Could he do it again?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Kawhi Leonard injury limited the potential of the Los Angeles Clippers to start the season. They did fare surprisingly well though, behind the solid play of James Harden and Norman Powell combined with a stifling defense. Even though the Clippers were able to fight themselves into solid playoff positioning without their oft-injured star, their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5284,"featured_media":119119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1608,62],"tags":[444,168,716],"class_list":["post-119080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clippers","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-james-harden","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-norman-powell"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119080"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180975,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119080\/revisions\/180975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}