Kawhi Leonard forgets about his regrettable scandal for Christmas

Kawhi Leonard was close to breaking the record, but he chose not to make it an obsession and to focus on what lies ahead. On Sunday, the Los Angeles Clippers forward ended up scoring a career-high 55 points in the 112-99 victory against the Detroit Pistons, the leaders of the Eastern Conference. This performance was guided by the coaching staff rather than personal goal for numbers.

The Clippers are on their best streak of the season with four consecutive wins, largely due to Leonard's offensive momentum, becoming increasingly influential in attack.

During the game, Tyronn Lue warned that Leonard was close to setting a new franchise scoring record. Nevertheless, Leonard limited his playing time in the final quarter to six minutes and decided to sit out with less than a minute remaining.

Thus, he matched the team's record for most points in a game, a record he shares with James Harden.

"I prefer to focus on the next game rather than force something like that," commented Leonard. "I told Lue that it's not worth the risk. Hopefully, we can win again and find ourselves in a similar situation."

In the locker room, Harden took it lightly, joking with Leonard about how long it took for that game with over 50 points to come, while repeating the well-known phrase "double nickels." Leonard is in his fourteenth season in the league.

"It was amazing to see how easily he did it," explained Harden. "Everything seemed very fluid. He reached wherever he wanted on the court, and from there, it didn't depend on the defender anymore but on his own shot."

"I am very happy for him because, on a daily basis, you see the effort behind it. Everything he had to overcome to be there and play at his level was something very special."

Persistent knee issues had limited Leonard in recent seasons. At the beginning of this season, he missed ten games due to ankle and foot problems but has gradually regained consistency. Last week, against the Los Angeles Lakers, he exceeded 40 minutes on the court, starting the current winning streak, which he repeated on Friday.

Against Detroit, he ended the game with 17 of 26 field goals and 16 of 17 from the free-throw line, totaling 39 minutes.

"Now he can endure many minutes and make a difference," Lue pointed out. "When he's healthy, he is one of the great references in the league, and that has been evident in the recent games."

Earlier, Leonard had scored 41 points against the Houston Rockets, becoming the second player in franchise history to string together home games of at least 40 points, an achievement previously only reached by Bob McAdoo.

Tremendous performance by Kawhi Leonard

In Sunday's game, he scored 26 points in the third quarter, although he missed the only free throw he attempted in that period. That miss not only prevented him from breaking the club's historic record but also ended his streak of 64 consecutive made free throws, the longest in franchise history.

"I don't usually find myself in these kinds of situations," admitted Leonard, who is averaging 39.0 points in the last four games. "My priority is to move the ball and make my teammates better, but the coaching staff asks me to be aggressive all the time."

"It's part of an adaptation process, shooting more threes and adjusting my game to fit how the game is played today."

This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Kawhi Leonard se olvida de su lamentable escándalo por Navidad