Is Kawhi Leonard Playing Tonight Vs Thunder? Clippers Issue Availability Report for Their Star Forward

Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard has missed one of the three games this season already. Will he suit up tonight against the Thunder?

The Los Angeles Clippers are in Oklahoma City as they take on the Thunder for a 2-game matchup. The Clippers are coming into town with a 2-1 record. After winning their first two games against the Lakers and the Kings, the Clippers couldn’t get the better of the Suns. This resulted in a 112-95 loss at home.

Considering the game was on the second night of a back-to-back, the Clippers wouldn’t like to think too much about the same and move on to the next contest.

Kawhi Leonard has played two of the three games so far, and has been coming off the bench. The coaching and medical staff don’t want to pressure their star, who is coming off a season of injury. This leaves us asking, is he playing tonight?

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Is Kawhi Leonard playing tonight?

Heading into OKC, the Clippers are a few players short. Paul George is out due to illness, and Marcus Morris is out too. Along with that, two of their bench players are headed to G-League as well, so they’d be four players short.

However, these reports show that Kawhi is not on them, and hence we can expect him to play tonight.

If Kawhi chooses to come off the bench again, even with PG out, this is what the expected lineup looks like:

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Despite the personnel shortage, we can expect the Clippers to follow the minutes restrictions on Kawhi and John Wall tonight as well.

What expectations do the Clippers have from Kawhi?

The Los Angeles Clippers signed Kawhi Leonard and Paul George in the summer of 2019. When they did so, they wanted to build a roster good enough to win the championship. They crashed and burned in the Bubble Playoffs. They were the overwhelming favorites for the 2020-21 season, but Kawhi’s injuries in the playoffs cost them their shot.

With Kawhi back after missing the entire 2021-22 season, the team is taking no risk in the regular season so far. They know they need Leonard to succeed in the Playoffs and have been modeling the workload accordingly.

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The team would expect their star to show up when it’s needed, and play his best basketball in the playoffs.