NBA scores 2017: LeBron James’ biggest rival is Kawhi Leonard

James and Leonard is the best rivalry we forget exists.

Jan 22, 2017, 1:00 PM UTC

NBA: Cleveland Cavaliers at San Antonio Spurs

Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports

LeBron James hates seeing Kawhi Leonard.

We don’t have to call it a rivalry, since James doesn’t like that word. No opponent can shut down James, no matter how good a defender. But when James sees Leonard, he knows how much harder his life just became on the court. Just a glimpse of Leonard coming off the bench, and he can mentally envision Leonard’s freakish wingspan and unparalleled defensive prowess following his every step. It’s enough to drop a curse word or two — which he literally has done before.

That moment happened in the 2013 NBA Finals. James won that series, with Leonard still developing into the player he is today. The Spurs beat Miami in the finals the next year, with Leonard being the third-youngest player to ever win Finals MVP. The two players show no mercy against each other in every matchup we’ve seen since. On Saturday, in the Cavaliers’ and the Spurs’ first meeting this season, it was Leonard who metronomed his way back on top as San Antonio won 118-115 in overtime.

Leonard made it happen. His 41 points were a career-high, his first time breaking the 40-point plateau, and it came on 15-of-30 shooting. He has now scored 30 points in six straight games, the first Spur with a streak like that since Mike Mitchell in 1986. Leonard’s steal and slam off a crucial jump ball all but sealed the game in overtime. He accounted for six of San Antonio’s 11 overtime points, too.

Yet again, Leonard is even better on offense this year, taking on a higher usage rate and creating shots in more creative ways while having a chance for a 50-40-90 shooting season. All this is coming from the two-time Defensive Player of the Year, who will be right up there in that race again this season. This isn’t just established notoriety for Leonard, either. He didn’t slip a little on defense because of all the fun offensive chances coming his way. Just look at James, who sighs when Leonard is guarding him, knowing the two-way juggernaut makes his life harder than just about anyone in the league.

As mentioned, that’s still not enough to stop James. In particular, it wasn’t late in the game. You could see the frustration mounting over the final minutes of the fourth quarter with the Cavaliers trailing the entire time — sometimes, it was due to James’ struggles to get past Leonard. But other times, it was his teammates doing something like not boxing out LaMarcus Aldridge for a wide-open tip-in dunk. The frustration boiled over, though, and James said “enough” once the clock rolled into the game’s final minute. He basically forced overtime by himself.

The Cavaliers trailed 107-102, but two James free throws set up his impossibly deep triple on the next trip down. He was nearly touching the C logo, and he shot it up anyway. James then smothered Leonard on the Spurs’ final play, forcing a turnaround jumper that was short off iron. Look, this is what we’re trying to tell you: These two players facing each other leads to very, very high level basketball.

It’s a rivalry, for sure. It doesn’t have the pettiness that the Warriors vs. the Cavaliers carries with it year-round, but neither James or Leonard wants that. Just stick the two most well-rounded players in the league against each other, and simply have them play ball.

James’ game-tying shot was a smart play, forcing a two-for-one that could potentially give the Cavaliers another chance (given another stop) without playing the foul game if it had missed originally. James knew he could make it, too. But somewhere in his mind — maybe tucked away in a corner in the back, even subconsciously — he had to be exhaling. Thinking, Kawhi finally gave me a couple inches to breathe.

That never happens. No wonder he shot it.

It’s (still) a bad time to be Boogie Cousins.

This season hasn’t gone DeMarcus Cousins’ way too often. Don’t take my word for it — just look at our headlines about the poor dude this year.

Failed. Yelled. Ejected. What do you do with him? Those aren’t the words or phrases you want to see in a headline. They’re caused by a mix of things — Cousins’ short temper, yes, but bad refereeing and terminally bad decision-making by Sacramento’s front office and half a dozen unlucky breaks, too.

The Kings lost again on Saturday, falling 102-99 to the Bulls in a game that came down to the last possession. Here’s the headline that came from that game.

And the photo evidence.

Here’s the thing — Boogie’s right. After describing how Cousins and the Kings keep getting unlucky this season, it finally looked like they had a break ready to go their way. Dwyane Wade went the length of the court on a go-ahead dunk and he missed it. Now that’s luck, making up for bad defense and taking advantage of a 21,000-point scorer who totally miscalculated his aging vertical. Maybe the Kings win it on the next possession!

... and the referees called a foul. On this.

It’s a bad time to be Boogie Cousins. What are you gonna do?

(For the record, Cousins’ answer was sarcastically raving about how good the officials are. Which, hey, that’s good maturity. There’s nothing lucky about it, though.)

Saturday’s best play

Marcus won MorrisBowl. Sorry, maybe next time, Markieff!

One other thing from Saturday

Gregg Popovich spent four uninterrupted minutes talking about Donald Trump. Like the past two times he’s spoken out about Trump, he’s very and understandably disappointed.