MIAMI — Over the last few days, the message to Kawhi Leonard from his Spurs coaches was clear: He needed to snap out of it.
Somewhat overwhelmed by the challenge of guarding Heat star LeBron James and thrown off by his own offensive struggles, Leonard was a non-factor in the first two games, averaging just 9.0 points and shooting 42.9 percent from the field, even fouling out of Game 2. For a guy who averaged 12.8 points on 52.2 percent shooting this season, something was clearly amiss.
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“We just want him to be who he’s been the whole year, the regular season and the playoffs,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “I think the foul situation in the first two games, he overreacted to them and became very cautious. He doesn’t play like that, he has got to be real active at both ends.”
Message received. In Game 3 of the Finals here at AmericanAirlines Arena, Leonard stole the show, putting his stamp on the game with a Grade-A performance on both ends of the floor in a 111-92 Spurs win. Not only did Leonard rein in James, he also was the focal point of the offense, scoring a career-high 29 points on 10-for-13 shooting, including 6-for-6 on tries in the paint.
“My guys are wanting me to be aggressive,” Leonard said, “and it doesn’t matter who is in front of me, I just have to play the same game and just play hard.”
Leonard was hot from the beginning of the game, going 5-for-5 for 16 points from the field in the first quarter. James, too, got off to a good start, scoring 14 points on 5-for-6 shooting. But while Leonard continued his barrage throughout the game, James scored only eight points in the final three quarters and committed seven turnovers.
San Antonio was, generally, hot from the beginning of the game. Not only did they score 41 points in the opening quarter, they scored 71 points in the first half, on a Finals-record 75.8 percent shooting. Leonard was the anchor, with 18 first-half points.
The Spurs know they need Leonard to keep his matchup against James close in order to have a chance to win this series. In Game 3, Leonard dominated it.
“He took over the game,” Spurs forward Tim Duncan said. “Kawhi was aggressive. He’s been getting a lot — we have been on him about continuing to play. Foul trouble has been a problem for him in the first couple of games, and it kind of took him out of his game.”
It’s easy to forget, of course, that Leonard is in his third season, and that he is just 22 years old. He does exhibit a veteran’s poise and an allergy to controversy — as one would expect from a Spur, Leonard’s blandness of phrase tops even Duncan’s, which is legendary. That comes not only from Leonard’s own personality, but from the fact that he has five teammates in their 30s.
Eventually — perhaps soon — Leonard figures to be the face of the Spurs. As Popovich put it after the conference finals, “He’s starting to feel his oats a little bit and is starting to figure out that he's a hell of a player. … That’s why I say he’s probably the future of the Spurs, partially because everybody else is older than dirt, and somebody younger has got to take over eventually."
Including the playoffs, Leonard has appeared in only 244 games for the Spurs, and 217 of them have been starts. His rookie year was truncated by the league’s lockout, and while he showed promise right away as a perimeter defensive stopper, he was not much of a shooter in the early going — he made just 25.9 percent of his 3-pointers in his first two months in the league.
This season, he made 37.9 percent and, as has been his pattern, picked up his shooting in the playoffs — he is now making 40.3 percent of his 3s in the postseason, and has shot 40.9 percent from the arc in his playoff career.
“I played with him a bunch during the lockout,” Duncan said. “He came down and worked out with us before the team was together. So I kind of got an early look at him. I thought he had a lot of work to do. He wasn't shooting the ball like he does now. But Pop and the guys saw something in him and they allowed him to kind of develop and find his own way.”
Leonard’s way has featured aggressiveness on both ends of the floor when he is at his best. But he lost his way a bit in the first two games of this series. His teammates let him know it, and on Tuesday, he was back.