The Los Angeles Clippers lost their first game of the 2019-20 season on Saturday on the road against the Phoenix Suns, who were missing their former number-one overall draft pick center Deandre Ayton due to a suspension. In the high-scoring affair, Clippers head coach Doc Rivers pulled All-Star forward Kawhi Leonard, the mega free agent who signed with the club in the offseason, in the fourth quarter.

Leonard finished the game scoring 27 points in just 32 minutes, but that was not nearly enough in the eight-point loss for L.A.

Rivers explained his decision to rest Leonard, according to Jovan Buha of The Athletic:

“We tried to keep him in that 30-minute range, 35,” Rivers said. “We could go to 35 if we wanted to. Honestly, I didn’t think we were going to win the game. We could’ve kept him in. 35 is a lot of minutes. We can play him that if we want. I just chose not to. I wasn’t going to keep him out there when we weren’t playing right as a whole, as a group. So why keep him out there?”

Leonard, off the heels of his second Finals MVP honor last season, was taken out of the ball game with approximately four minutes remaining and the Clippers down a dozen points. The former Coach of the Year winner Rivers decided to ultimately capitulate to the Suns in the early-season showdown between the two Pacific Division teams rather than push Kawhi's minutes over his optimized amount.

Eventually, shooting guard Devin Booker's 30-piece for the Suns sunk L.A.