As great as Timmy and Tony were, how about Kawhi Leonard?

[Spurs21Fan4Ever]

He should get in A for this game! Sure his offense wasn't much, but his defense on LeBron was amazing! He grew up so much tonight! Don't get used to him being a role player guys, he's a star in the making. I would not be surprised if Kawhi even wins an MVP award someday! Great game Kawhi! Love this guy!

[Beaverfuzz]

The three missed three's in a row mark him down to a B. Keep it up Kawhi!

[Aztecfan03]

He is the reason i'm a spursfan, and I loved his D, but B-

[jhfenton]

Shots come and go. His one-on-one defense tonight was stellar.

[Big Pimp_21]

Held Lebron to the most insignificant triple double in NBA Finals history

[Werdsniper2]

Love Kawhi. Nice one-on-one Defense. Shooting was horrible though. As for his boxing out...well, 18 boards by LBJ says he didn't do much of it. He also didn't protect the pass much. Still, with 10 boards of his own and no glaring errors, he still gets a B- in my book.

[Spurs21Fan4Ever]

This was mainly about his defense, though a couple times he took LeBron off the dribble and scored and made it look easy. First time had a spin fadeway, next time he layed it up over Wade.

[Mr. Body]

He got smeared by some picks in the last minutes of the game. Dunno if he was getting tired.

For as young as he is he's playing great. I'd expect his shooting to get back in a rhythm.

[racm]

#KidPippen

[capek]

His D on Bron was absolutely fantastic. I don't know if anyone else noticed this, but there was this one play in the third when Kawhi was resting, Danny was guarding Lebron, Lebron took it in the post, gave Danny a bump and Danny stumbled back two steps before recovering with Timmy coming over to help. I bring that up because I watched Kawhi very closely, Lebron banged with his all game and Kawhi didn't stumble back once. That was some impressive shit from the second year player! :toast :toast :toast

[capek]

#KidPippen

Fuck ya! :ihit

[DarrinS]

Kahwi is a bad ass mofo

Nuff said

[Werdsniper2]

He should get in A for this game! Sure his offense wasn't much, but his defense on LeBron was amazing! He grew up so much tonight! Don't get used to him being a role player guys, he's a star in the making. I would not be surprised if Kawhi even wins an MVP award someday! Great game Kawhi! Love this guy!

MVP??? I am almost 100% positive that will never happen. Multiple NBA All-Defensive teams? Sure. Defensive Player of the Year? Definitely possible. MVP though? Seems far fetched to me. I mean, look...he's a great team player, and his strong presence on the court is undeniable. Unfortunately, he is too unselfish for such a title. He is a "jack of all trades, master of none." type player.

He is the mayo on your ham sandwich. The bacon to your eggs.

He is not however, the star player on a franchise team.

Nonetheless, he is invaluable to this team. He's a Kukoc to a Jordan. A Schrempf to a Kemp. Absolutely necessary.

[Spurs21Fan4Ever]

MVP??? I am almost 100% positive that will never happen. Multiple NBA All-Defensive teams? Sure. Defensive Player of the Year? Definitely possible. MVP though? Seems far fetched to me. I mean, look...he's a great team player, and his strong presence on the court is undeniable. Unfortunately, he is too unselfish for such a title. He is a "jack of all trades, master of none." type player.

He is the mayo on your ham sandwich. The bacon to your eggs.

He is not however, the star player on a franchise team.

Nonetheless, he is invaluable to this team. He's a Kukoc to a Jordan. A Schrempf to a Kemp. Absolutely necessary.

He's in the 2nd year of his career and he's playing with vets and superstars in Duncan and Parker, of course he is a role player now, but give him time.

[HarlemHeat37]

:lol obviously Kawhi will never win MVP, but he's already the 3rd best player on a potential championship team..his ceiling is probably a mid-tier #2 guy on a title team..

His offensive game is actually limited in the Spurs system, as he's an inconsistent shooter that doesn't get the opportunity to create for himself..as he showed tonight, when he's given a chance to create, he's easily capable, he's not Bruce..

[timmy2003]

He's a heck of defender and rebounder and can be the second or third option on offense.

[TheyCallMePro]

Other than making shots Kawhi was doing everything tonight. Didn't seem rattled at all. Great defense on Lebron, rebounded extremely well, and was the X factor in game 1.

Definitely deserves an A. I can forgive the missed 3's. We missed a lot of shots collectively as a team tonight. It's everything else we did that mattered and Kawhi was the #1 guy involved in that.

[Floyd Pacquiao]

can anybody make a gif of kawhi's pretty turnaround jumper over lebron...happend in the 1st Q tbh

[TimmehC]

Love the enthusiasm, but :lol @ Kawhi being an MVP. He should be a very good second banana someday, and he's already a great 3rd banana. But I don't see him ever being the offensive focal point on a contending team. He doesn't have the ballhandling or court vision for that.

[Spurs21Fan4Ever]

Love the enthusiasm, but :lol @ Kawhi being an MVP. He should be a very good second banana someday, and he's already a great 3rd banana. But I don't see him ever being the offensive focal point on a contending team. He doesn't have the ballhandling or court vision for that.

He's in the 2nd year of his career. He has plenty of time to improve in those areas, and he will. Not saying he will win MVP, but it wouldn't surprise me. He's a great player that will get far better as his career goes on.

[Snaq O'Meal]

Love Kawhi. Nice one-on-one Defense. Shooting was horrible though. As for his boxing out...well, 18 boards by LBJ says he didn't do much of it. He also didn't protect the pass much. Still, with 10 boards of his own and no glaring errors, he still gets a B- in my book.

According to the box scores, LBJ only grabbed 2 offensive boards to add to his 16 defensive rebounds. Given the Spurs strategy of not going for offensive rebounds, you can't really blame Kawhi for that.

[Juggity]

Two great moves on Lebron tonight. Olajuwon-esque fake and turnaround jumper, and then the layup-dunk later-on. Shook Lebron on the perimeter twice for open 3s, too. Just couldn't knock down those shots.

And on defense, he was stellar.

[HarlemHeat37]

Two great moves on Lebron tonight. Olajuwon-esque fake and turnaround jumper, and then the layup-dunk later-on. Shook Lebron on the perimeter twice for open 3s, too. Just couldn't knock down those shots.

And on defense, he was stellar.

I've been saying it all year, Kawhi has already shown us that he can create his own offense, tbh..

He's not a spot-up shooter, and although he has improved as a shooter, he's streaky..I'm expecting Pop to implement him as a core creator for the Spurs next year along with the big 3, tbh..

[pgardn]

His D on Bron was absolutely fantastic. I don't know if anyone else noticed this, but there was this one play in the third when Kawhi was resting, Danny was guarding Lebron, Lebron took it in the post, gave Danny a bump and Danny stumbled back two steps before recovering with Timmy coming over to help. I bring that up because I watched Kawhi very closely, Lebron banged with his all game and Kawhi didn't stumble back once. That was some impressive shit from the second year player! :toast :toast :toast

Lebron is gonna hear about this till next game. If Leonard can force him to pass up the shot again...
I expect Lebron to try and get to the line next game, he goes ramming ball. Lets see how they call the game.

Green.... got torn up by Wade as well.

[pgardn]

Two great moves on Lebron tonight. Olajuwon-esque fake and turnaround jumper,.

The footwork on that shot was serious stuff.

[ezau]

His D on Bron was absolutely fantastic. I don't know if anyone else noticed this, but there was this one play in the third when Kawhi was resting, Danny was guarding Lebron, Lebron took it in the post, gave Danny a bump and Danny stumbled back two steps before recovering with Timmy coming over to help. I bring that up because I watched Kawhi very closely, Lebron banged with his all game and Kawhi didn't stumble back once. That was some impressive shit from the second year player! :toast :toast :toast

Just shows you how strong his core is.

[timtonymanu]

He was great tonight. The rest has helped him get his lift back a bit. Danny Green was also very clutch tonight. He's come a long way from the 2012 WCF jitters.

[capek]

Just shows you how strong his core is.

It's his core, and his fundamentals. There was that bit from the espn sports science vid that was posted earlier today that showed how low Kawhi gets and how he widens his stance he's he's on D. It's the same reason I was a decent linebacker in high school even though I was (and am) a skinny white boy. It's just physics, but it's so basic and fundamental that most players don't get it. And it's why Kawhi is such an exciting prospect and has progressed so quickly, he not only has the physical skill set, he's also just so zoned in on doing every little thing that helps him maximize all of that. He's such a special kid, and played a great game, but it's only going to get tougher from here, as there's no doubt the Heat will do everything they can to get Lebron going in the next games.

btw that play involving Danny happened around the 3:50 mark in the first; watching the replay on ESPN and it just happened. The fact that Kawhi was able to stand up to that all game, it's just :wow

[99 Problems]

LeBrian will come out from now with a view of stamping his brand over KL. That KL got gears not tested until now, watch him go from here.

[dg7md]

Without him, Bron would have lit us up.

He knows how to play LeBron. Which is an excellent asset to us.

[SupremeGuy]

Held Lebron to the most insignificant triple double in NBA Finals historyThis.

[lovetp9]

the future is belong to him

[KL2]

People forget just how big Kawhi is, he's got the length of a PF-C, amazing strength and knows how to use his body. He's 6'7 230lbs, there aren't a lot of SF's that size. There is a video of him on youtube working out without a shirt, dude is pretty jacked. A few more years in the NBA and this guy could get up to around 240! He already looks like he's significantly stronger than his rookie season, and is a much better defender as well.

[Seventyniner]

Kawhi is also a good mid-range shooter, though he rarely gets to take those.

[TJastal]

Love Kawhi. Nice one-on-one Defense. Shooting was horrible though. As for his boxing out...well, 18 boards by LBJ says he didn't do much of it. He also didn't protect the pass much. Still, with 10 boards of his own and no glaring errors, he still gets a B- in my book.

James only had 2 offensive rebounds. If anything that points to a lack of defensive rebounding on his teammates' part.

[boutons_deux]

With the Spurs up 79-78 and the Heat in possession with just over six minutes to go, the Spurs’ win probability is 49.6 percent. But just gaining possession on Leonard’s steal changes it to 58.3 percent. And after Tony Parker puts Norris Cole in the blender and converts the layup, it’s at 65.4 percent. So the whole sequence is an increase of 15.8 percent.
http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2013/06/07/game-1-the-impact-plays/

[hitmanyr2k]

can anybody make a gif of kawhi's pretty turnaround jumper over lebron...happend in the 1st Q tbh

I do see a bit of Scottie Pippen in him. I hope he works on his offensive game more with moves like these and gets a chance to shine next year. Players tend to make that big move in their 3rd year.

http://cdn.bleacherreport.net/images_root/article/media_slots/photos/000/901/240/Lenoard_original.gif

[Raven]

when was the last time Lebron scored less than 20 points?

[Dex]

The three missed three's in a row mark him down to a B. Keep it up Kawhi!

Sure, it obviously would've been better if he could've hit one of those (would've tied the game IIRC), but I still love the "if I miss one, I'll hit the next one" mentality. They were also wide open shots that came in the flow of the offense; he had to shoot or he'd be getting an earful from Pop.

[Dex]

when was the last time Lebron scored less than 20 points?

Game 2 against Chicago, 5/8/13.

[Chinook]

Kawhi did a great job not being dominated and still finding ways to contribute on offense, but let's not kid ourselves. His post defense was effective mostly because James seemed only interested in passing out or shooting a jumper after he got the ball on the block. It was as if James expected the Spurs to freak out and leave someone open as soon as he caught the ball, and when they didn't he wasn't prepared to make them pay for it. I say that because even against Green and Diaw, James shot or passed more often than he actually tried to back them down. The his score on Green in the post, if I recall correctly, was pretty much him getting the ball in the post, facing up, then driving into Green to push him back before getting the bucket. While that move was effective on a smaller player, that's not the type of post game that's going to hurt the Spurs.

I think James is going to try to go Game 3 of the ECF on Sunday. Leonard is going to have to be ready to ratchet his defense up another level. Green and Diaw are going to have to get smarter when defending him, too, as it would be a shame to see Leonard hold his own only for James to get a lot of points in a short time against other defenders (pretty much what Curry did when not guarded by Green but even worse). Also, Leonard barely avoided real foul trouble last night. A more aggressive James may well push him to the pine pretty quickly, so someone else has to step up.

[Raven]

Game 2 against Chicago, 5/8/13.

i just checked, to find a game where Lebron didn't score at least 20 points and where it wasn't a 10+ points win, we have to go to January 10th against portland...

Props to Kawhi and Pop's gameplan.

[DarrinS]

I would really love to see Kawhi fake more 3's and drive baseline. Dude can finish.

[Floyd Pacquiao]

I do see a bit of Scottie Pippen in him. I hope he works on his offensive game more with moves like these and gets a chance to shine next year. Players tend to make that big move in their 3rd year.

http://cdn.bleacherreport.net/images_root/article/media_slots/photos/000/901/240/Lenoard_original.gif

:tu bigtime move

[HI-FI]

thanks for gif hitmanyr2k (http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6634235#post6634235)


I loved his work from this game. sure it wasn't lockdown, but considering that he's guarding the best player in the game, is coming back from 10 days of rest and he's a 21 year old in his first Finals, I think Kawhi did pretty good.

He said in one of those interviews that ace3g posted that the tendonitis feels good following the rest, so I'm grateful for that. I think he'll get better too as it goes on, once he establishes more of a rhythm, he just needs to be careful with fouls, just like anyone who guards Lebron. He's fortunate he doesn't have to carry a massive load and we're fortunate he's eager to fulfil his role.

[superbigtime]

those consecutive missed 3s were painful but he made up for it.

[Spur|n|Austin]

Held Lebron to the most insignificant triple double in NBA Finals history

This ^

[phxspurfan]

His D on Bron was absolutely fantastic. I don't know if anyone else noticed this, but there was this one play in the third when Kawhi was resting, Danny was guarding Lebron, Lebron took it in the post, gave Danny a bump and Danny stumbled back two steps before recovering with Timmy coming over to help. I bring that up because I watched Kawhi very closely, Lebron banged with his all game and Kawhi didn't stumble back once. That was some impressive shit from the second year player! :toast :toast :toast

Yeah and he also got this nice fallaway putback that showed his core strength and ath-a-leticism

[rasuo214]

343004868744716289

[DarrinS]

343004868744716289

Huh?

[rasuo214]

Huh?

Lebron didn't only play against Kawhi, most of his points came when someone else was defending him.

[AztecSpurHoops]

Meaning while kawhi was guarding him one on one James went 2-8

[DarrinS]

Lebron didn't only play against Kawhi, most of his points came when someone else was defending him.

Oh, ok