Former Raptors forward Kawhi Leonard scored 27 points against his old team.
The Los Angeles Clippers picked up their third straight victory on Wednesday night at Intuit Dome, defeating the Toronto Raptors 119-94 in convincing fashion. Leading by as many as 22 points, LA never allowed Toronto to get much closer after that. Star forward and former Raptors Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard was a big part of that, scoring 27 points to extend his Clippers single-season franchise record for consecutive 20-point games.
When asked after the game about being able to keep Toronto from getting back in this game, Leonard had a message about his team’s ability to do that.
“They made some runs,” he said. “Got it down to 12. We had it at 18 or 22. So they did. But we were able to make timely threes, timely buckets.”
Despite spending just one year there, Leonard is one of the greatest players in Raptors franchise history. He led the team to its first title ever in 2019, not only winning Finals MVP but scoring the third most points in a playoff run ever, trailing only Michael Jordan and LeBron James.
There were Raptors fans who made the trip to LA to watch Leonard and their team, as he still means a lot to the fans there despite the short stint.
For Toronto, this was another loss against a good team. LA is just one game above .500, but the Clippers have been one of the best teams in the NBA since their 6-21 start. Despite trading James Harden and Ivica Zubac at the trade deadline, the Clippers are in position to make a postseason appearance via the Play-In Tournament. For Toronto, the Play-In is something it is looking to avoid, as a top-six spot has been the goal for the entire season. Losses like these put that into question, as there is a very thin margin between the sixth and seventh seeds in the Eastern Conference.
While Leonard admitted that Toronto was able to make a few runs in this game, there was never a point where it felt like LA’s lead was seriously in jeopardy. The Raptors struggled from 3-point range for almost the entire game, which really limited their ability to gain any sort of momentum, despite the Clippers leaving that door open at times.
All season long, the question for the Raptors has been their viability against the NBA’s better teams, and this loss to the Clippers was another failed test in that regard.