For the second time in his career, Kawhi Leonard has been named MVP of the NBA Finals.
Leonard led the Toronto Raptors over the Golden State Warriors in spectacular fashion. He had a quiet Game 1 by his standards, but he scored a team-high 30 points in Toronto's Game 3 victory at Oracle Arena. He followed that up with 36 points, 12 rebounds, four steals and two assists without turning the ball over once in Game 4.
Kawhi Leonard accepts the 2019 Bill Russell #NBAFinals MVP trophy! #WeTheNorth pic.twitter.com/VtnTvARm6K
— NBA (@NBA) June 14, 2019
In doing so, Leonard joined some impressive company.
Kawhi.
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 8, 2019
KD.
Shaq.
Jordan.
Only players since 1977-78 to put up 35 pts and have 0 turnovers in an NBA Finals game. pic.twitter.com/HrzNSBbNbN
Leonard then scored 22 points to go along with six rebounds, three assists and two steals in Game 6 to secure the franchise's first title.
Leonard joins the likes of Kevin Durant, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Tim Duncan as the only players in league history to win the award multiple times . He's also only the third player to be named Finals MVP on two different teams, LeBron James and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar being the others.
