Kawhi Leonard's last four games have showcased a noticeable dip in performance, shortly after coming back from a team-induced four-game rest past the halfway point of the season. The Toronto Raptors star was putting up 27.9 points per game on 50.3 percent from the field and 37.2 percent from deep through his first 38 games of the season, but he has regressed in his last four, putting up only 17.3 points per contest on 34.5 percent from the field and 31.6 percent from long-range.
Raptors head coach Nick Nurse believes the recent struggle could be a side effect of Leonard just getting bored of killing his opponents, but it's time that he gets out there and trots out 35 or 40 points in the near future, according to Ryan Wolstat of he Toronto Sun.
The boredom hasn't cost the Raptors much, as they're 3-1 in the last four games with Leonard, riding a four-game win streak with less than a week left before the All-Star break.
Yet Toronto, who has had a relatively schedule since the start of the calendar year, has lost the marquee games they were expected to win as the powerhouse of the East.
The Raptors lost to the San Antonio Spurs by 18, the Boston Celtics by nine, the Houston Rockets by a deuce, and they were limited to 92 points by the clamp-down Milwaukee Bucks, who wound up with a 13-point win.
Leonard and company are still a game behind the Bucks for the top spot, and with the Golden State Warriors streaking of late, it might be a tighter race than expected, needing Leonard to regain his dominance sooner than later.
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