San Antonio Spurs All-Star forward Kawhi Leonard has quietly grown some real consideration for the NBA’s MVP award. Even if some other NBA stars aren’t fans of Leonard. Slowly but surely people have started to ask themselves, and others, is Kawhi Leonard really the NBA MVP?
The soft-spoken Spurs star exploded last night against the Houston Rockets and put his name in the running among the league’s most valuable. It’s looking like a three-man race for the MVP award between Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Kawhi Leonard with LeBron James lurking, as always.
But last night Kawhi made it known that he’s in that conversation without saying anything. On Monday night against the Houston Rockets, the Spurs star scored 39 points, grabbed six rebounds, handed out five assists and recorded two blocks in an MVP-like performance. His huge night included a near seven-second span at the end of the game that featured Leonard hitting a go-ahead 3-pointer and then blocking Harden’s shot on the defensive end of the court to seal a 112-110 win for San Antonio.
Words don’t do it justice, just watch his game below.
His teammate Manu Ginobili also couldn’t believe Kawhi’s performance.
Leonard’s amazing night ended with praise from his coaches and teammates but he wasn’t able to talk about his night right away. At least not until he was first randomly drug tested by the NBA.
Following from Michael C. Wright of ESPN.
Leonard scored 39 points, capping the performance with a 6.5-second sequence of brilliance on both ends of the floor to key the 112-110 victory and elevate his standing in the debate over the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award.
Then in an interesting but unrelated twist, the NBA tabbed Leonard for a drug screening, and the forward took a little longer than expected to provide a sample because of slight dehydration. That, in turn, delayed Leonard’s availability to the media.
The NBA tests players randomly four times during the season and twice during the offseason.
