Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers are going dancing in the 2025 NBA Playoffs. They avoided going through the needle of the NBA Play-in Tournament after pulling off a come-from-behind 124-119 overtime victory over the Golden State Warriors on Sunday at Chase Center in San Francisco.
The Clippers were down by as many as 12 points against Golden State but got it together to pull off an important victory that also relegated the Warriors to the play-in.
Leonard and the Clippers are trying to get over the first-round hump in the playoffs, which they have failed to do in previous seasons. They struck out of the first round in 2023 and again in 2024. Without Paul George this time around, Los Angeles is hoping that Leonard stays healthy and helps the team have a deep run in the playoffs.
“It's great,” Leonard said when asked by Law Murray of The Athletic about how the six-time NBA All-Star is feeling now that he's healthy for the playoffs a year after he was limited to only just a couple of games in the postseason because of a knee issue.
Article Continues Below“You gotta stay the course and be able to feel how I'm feeling now and trying to keep that moving. Like I said, I want to have a healthy offseason. That's what I'm trying to do,” Leonard added.
Against the Warriors, Leonard showed his readiness for the postseason, dropping 33 points on an efficient 13-for-20 shooting from the field. He knocked down four of eight attempts from behind the arc, grabbed six rebounds, dished out seven assists, and recorded three steals while playing in 47 minutes of action on the floor.
Meanwhile, James Harden stepped up with an MVP-esque performance as well, producing a game-high 39 points on 13-for-23 shooting to go along with 10 dimes and seven boards as he and Leonard countered the Dubs' 1-2 punch of Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler, which combined for 66 points for the home team.
In the playoffs, the No. 5 seed Clippers will have a tough opponent in the first round, as they are set to face the No. 4 seed of Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets. For what it's worth, the Clippers and the Nuggets split their four-game series in the regular season.