Kawhi's playmaking adding needed dimension to Raptors' attack

TORONTO — Early in the second quarter of Game 1, the Golden State Warriors were making a run that got them within one possession of the Toronto Raptors’ lead. Kawhi Leonard received the ball at the top of the arc matched up against Shaun Livingston and got by him with ease before being surrounded by four defenders in the paint.

Leonard kicked the ball out to Patrick McCaw in the left corner, who swung it to Fred VanVleet above the break, and the third-year guard extended his scorching shooting numbers as a father of two. It was one of five secondary assists for Leonard on the night to go along with five of the traditional kind, setting the tone for the Raptors’ impressive victory.

Toronto’s best player had just eight points and three fouls with two turnovers at halftime, but the Raptors led by 10. He certainly wasn’t perfect with his decision-making, forcing the extra shot or two and at times taking the extra second or two. But this is part and parcel of what makes Leonard great. Dominance isn’t established by looking to appease the needs of others at every beck and call. It’s done by establishing that even in moments of upheaval, one can find a way to impose their will on you and still defeat you between the ears.

There is going to be the forced shot or two that pushes defenders to help even more, and perhaps even buy his teammates that extra second when they truly need it. Still, he’s making reads quickly enough to keep his teammates in rhythm and allow them to provide the offense the Warriors challenged them to bring.

“[Marc] Gasol we left a couple times early in the game and didn't rotate, we just gave him a couple of dare shots and he knocked them down,” Steve Kerr said after the game.

When the Milwaukee Bucks took what appeared to be a commanding 2-0 series lead against the Raptors in the East Finals, it came in large part due to the lack of assertiveness from Gasol. The Spaniard scored a total of eight points on 3-of-20 shooting in the first two games of the series, and with Golden State short on relevant film to scout the Raptors from their matchup it was easy to see where they may have gotten the idea of seeing if Toronto could win without Leonard beating them to a pulp. After all, their last playoff experience against the 27-year-old saw him explode for 26 points in just 24 minutes.

Leonard has trusted his teammates more of late (part of that is them making shots), and that’s been an important development for this Raptors team as they flipped the script against the Bucks and continue to ride that momentum against the Warriors. He has totaled 21 assists over the past three games, his highest tally over three consecutive games for the season and the most since the first three games of the 2017 conference semis against the Houston Rockets. The craziest part of Leonard’s 21 assists? They’ve led to 57 points. When Toronto defeated Milwaukee in Game 5, all nine of his assists led to three-pointers.

“He’s done a great job facilitating and finding guys, breaking down the defence, swinging the ball,” Danny Green said. “Pascal [Siakam] got some open ones at the rim. Marc got some open ones. And we got some open ones on the perimeter too.”

And this is where you see the value of being battle tested. Just as going up against Jonathan Isaac, Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo has helped prepare Pascal Siakam to go up against Draymond Green, the Raptors have had the reps to cope with this.

In addition to the opening of the Milwaukee series, there was also Game 3 against the Philadelphia 76ers, where Leonard scored 33 of the Raptors’ 95 points in a 21-point loss, forcing Kyle Lowry and the rest of his teammates to look inwards.

Lowry’s conclusion was simple, “we’ve got to help him.”

“We’ve played teams throughout these playoffs that’s playing similar defence and, I guess, just learning from the experiences and guys being ready,” Leonard said. “Just keep being aggressive and make sure I try to make the right play and don’t be a hero out there.”

Over the past three games, the non-Kawhi Raptors are shooting 34-for-81 (41.2 percent) from beyond the arc. After going through a world of struggle early in the post-season they are looking much more the team that finished as the league-leader in three-point shooting after the all-star break. Starting with Fred VanVleet, they are in tune with where and when their shots will come and stepping right into them.

“We assumed that there was a chance they were going to blitz Kawhi,” Gasol revealed after Game 1. “So, we were understanding the spacing that we were going to have and what kind of shot was going to be open, what kind of rotations they were going to do. Now, we got to still improve in some areas and spacing and moving out of that, but overall I thought we did a decent job.”

Draymond Green and Kerr have vowed that the Warriors will be better with their rotations in Game 2, that Leonard’s teammates have earned their respect in Game 1 and won’t see the dare shots they did on Thursday.

Sunday will undoubtedly be a different beast, but as the playoffs wear on Leonard is showing he can be whatever the Raptors need him to be.

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