For much of Saturday's playoff opener against the Denver Nuggets, both of the stars for the Los Angeles Clippers seemed to be getting hot. James Harden had a huge first quarter and Kawhi Leonard scored efficiently throughout the first half as the Clippers took a lead into the half.

In the second half, however, the Nuggets amped up their defensive intensity, shut down the two stars and rallied all the way back for a 112-110 overtime win to get out in front of this highly-anticipated first round series. Leonard didn't have a bad second half, but he had relatively quiet and finished the overall game with 22 points and six rebounds in 41 minutes.

Leonard also finished the day with seven turnovers as he struggled with the variety of looks that the Nuggets threw at him all game long. This was the first game where Leonard finished with seven turnovers or more since 2021, according to Jake Shapiro of Denver Sports 104.3

Leonard saw a lot of possessions with either Aaron Gordon or Christian Braun guarding him, but the Nuggets also loaded up help and sent plenty of double teams at the Clippers star. Some of those turnovers proved to be crucial ones, so Leonard will need to be more careful with the rock throughout the rest of the series.

After the game, Leonard gave his take on the sloppy play via Law Murray of The Athletic.

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“We've just gotta be decisive, get more in attack mode situations,” Leonard said. “That's it really.”

The Clippers will feel like they let one slip away on Saturday against a Nuggets team that was very lethargic early on in the game and basically spotted LA a 15-point lead in the first half. Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray also didn't have their best games, so it will be much tougher for Leonard and company to get wins in Denver moving forward.

Despite all of that, the Clippers still showed that they are more than capable of knocking off the Nuggets in this series, but they will need a better version of Leonard to show up in order to do so. Their next chance to steal one on the road comes on Monday night at 10 p.m. EST.