Kawhi Leonard thinks that a slow first quarter, which the Los Angeles Clippers lost by 19 points, was the primary reason for his team’s loss to the Denver Nuggets. The Clippers and Nuggets are tied at 1-1 in the Western Conference semifinals after Denver won Game 2 110-101.
It was a tough game for Leonard individually too. Kawhi ended a 47 playoff games streak with 15 or more points as he was limited by the Nuggets’ defense to just 13 points.
“Just more aggressive in their double teams, collapse the paint. A few easy ones didn’t fall early and that was it from there pretty much. We got into a lot of iso basketball. Basically dug ourselves in that hole,” Kawhi said when talking about Denver stopping him, per Tomer Azarly of ClutchPoints.
The Clippers superstar showed respect to the opponents too. “They’re a great team. Once you’re down 20 points early, it’s very hard to come back in the game. Especially a playoff game. Both teams wanna win. That was pretty much it. We couldn’t make shots, they did a great job,” he said.
Game 2 highlights:
