After beating the Portland Trailblazers in their season opener, Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers faced off against the Utah Jazz in Utah. The nail-biting finish saw Los Angeles snag their first loss of the 2023-24 campaign. The game ended with Russell Westbrook getting the ball on the right side of the floor off a Kawhi miss and in an unfortunate turn of events for the Clips, Russ would go on to airball the mid-range jumper. What fans seem to be focused on however is that Leonard had quite the reaction to Russ’s miss.
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Even before Westbrook’s shot began its descent, Kawhi was seen having fallen to the ground, on his knees. NBA Twitter pointed out ‘The Klaw’s’ lack of faith in his starting point guard’s ability to hit a clutch jumper and took to Twitter/X to say, “Kawhi [Leonard] fell to his knees!”
Both Leonard and Paul George played well for the Clippers, combining for 61 points with the latter dropping in 36 on just 17 shot attempts from the field. The 2017 MVP on the other hand was lackluster at best as he scored just 4 points and of course, the aforementioned missed game-tying shot.
Russell Westbrook had two wildly different games back-to-back
Russell Westbrook was electrifying in the Clippers’ season opener against the Portland Blazers. The rim saw little to no mercy when Russ was in pursuit for a basket as he bombarded it with dunk after dunk despite the fact that he’s in Year 16.
He finished the game off with 11 points and 13 assists while being a +30 on the box score. Ty Lue, after the game, commended Russ for taking on a reduced role and essentially sacrificing for the team, despite being a lock for the Hall of Fame.
Fast-forward to tonight’s 2-point loss to the Jazz and he didn’t look anything like the version of himself from 48 hours ago. With James Harden’s chances of becoming a Clipper getting slimmer by the day, it seems as though Russ will be starting for the Clips through and through and if that is the case, then he’ll most certainly have to play like himself, something he claims that he’s been able to do since getting to Steve Ballmer’s squad.
