The 2014 NBA Finals MVP and perennial All-Star Kawhi Leonard is expected to make his season debut on Tuesday when the Spurs play the Dallas Mavericks, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Mike Wright. Leonard hasn’t played all season while recovering from a quadriceps injury.
Kawhi Leonard plotting to return Tuesday for Spurs vs. Mavericks, per report
Leonard has been rehabbing his quad and hasn’t played all season. The Spurs are getting back a real one.
Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images
The two-way terminator was last seen wreaking havoc on the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals. But his postseason came to a screeching halt when he landed on Zaza Pachulia’s foot coming down from a jump shot, re-aggravating an injury he sustained in an earlier playoff series against the Rockets.
Leonard then somehow developed right quadricep tendinopathy, or inflammation of the tendon in the quadricep. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich called it an injury unlike anything he had ever seen.
Somehow, the Spurs have been able to stay afloat without Leonard, who was named an All-Star starter in a career year last season when he torched the league for 25.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1.8 steals per game. In the playoffs, he averaged 27.7 points on 52.5 percent shooting from the field, 45.5 percent shooting from three, and 93 percent shooting from the foul line.
San Antonio is 17-8 and the third seed in the West, just 2.5 games behind the Warriors and three games behind the red-hot Rockets. Now with Leonard expected to make his return, the Spurs can pick up where they left off in May.
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