Kawhi Leonard drills game-winner against Wizards (Video)
With the score knotted at 105, the San Antonio Spurs turned to Kawhi Leonard to provide the game-winner. True to his programming, Kawhi came up Klutch.
Very little has come easy for the San Antonio Spurs within the friendly confines of the AT&T Center in 2016-17. Despite boasting a league-best 11-0 record on the road, including a +9.8 point differential that ranks second in the NBA, the Spurs are only 5-4 with a -1.4 point differential at home.
This has been a shocking development for a team that tied the 1985-86 Boston Celtics for the best home record in NBA history at 40-1 last year, but despite their various struggles, Gregg Popovich’s squad is still sitting pretty at 16-4 for the second-best record in the West.
Win No. 16 didn’t come easy, but thankfully for the Spurs, they have a budding MVP candidate already proving himself as a worthy franchise successor to Tim Duncan.
The Washington Wizards played San Antonio tough all Friday night, with John Wall’s fourth quarter layup tying the game up at 105 with 11 seconds left.
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Unfortunately for the Wizards, that was more than enough time for a heartless machine like Kawhi Leonard to go to work, and he made them pay for that mistake with a matter-of-fact jumper from just inside the three-point line with 6.1 seconds remaining:
Spurs' Kawhi Leonard buries game-winning jumper to beat Wizards (all angles) pic.twitter.com/brwIB3uvBl
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) December 3, 2016
It was a beautifully designed play from Pop, but the truth is, Kawhi pretty much just stuck to his programming: He lost his man, buried the jumper, gave his understated little fist pump, and returned to the bench. Otto Porter Jr. went on to miss a very makable runner in the lane, and the Spurs secured their fifth home win of the season.
Leonard finished the night with 23 points and five rebounds, shooting 9-for-18 from the floor in a perfectly robotic, 50 percent makes, 50 percent misses manner so the rest of the world doesn’t catch on that he’s actually an escaped host from Westworld.
The Spurs still have plenty of issues to work out, including Tony Parker’s consistency/age, Pau Gasol’s interior defense and San Antonio’s uncharacteristic struggles at home, but with Kawhi Leonard leading the charge, this team has more than enough to continue squeaking by inferior competition in the meantime.
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