Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard would return in ‘phenomenal shape,’ Doc Rivers says

Los Angeles Clippers superstar Kawhi Leonard would be in “phenomenal condition” if the NBA season resumes, according to his head coach, Doc Rivers.

The NBA was suspended on March 11 amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed at the very least 88,two hundred life globally.

It stays to be observed regardless of whether the 2019-twenty season will restart amid the crisis, with commissioner Adam Silver expressing the league will not be in a position to make any selections until finally at the very least Could.

Additional: Lakers gamers symptom-no cost following COVID-19 quarantine

Leonard — who moved to Los Angeles in the offseason following major the Toronto Raptors to the title very last season — has been the subject matter of load administration this season to offer with a knee challenge. Rivers, though, informed reporters on Wednesday: “I know Kawhi’s overworking, I can ensure you that. And the big difference is, in the course of the summer season, Kawhi could not perform, you know, so now he’s acquired this crack and he’s in a position to coach.

“So the Kawhi we will see will be in phenomenal condition. PG [Paul George] is a further male that is heading to be in phenomenal condition.”

“If this receives started off, you can explain to our gamers are invested in the season,” Rivers mentioned. “And they will not want this season to go absent. And they’re doing work like it is not heading to go absent.”

The Clippers (forty four-twenty) experienced gained seven of their very last 8 online games to go into second location in the Western Convention, powering the rival Los Angeles Lakers (forty nine-14), in advance of the NBA was shut down.

Various options for resuming the season are remaining reviewed, which include enjoying powering closed doors and the season heading straight into the playoffs.

“If it usually means we get to participate in and carry on our pursuit for the goal that we want, I come to feel like Dr. Seuss: ‘I will participate in anyplace. I will participate in in a house, I will participate in in a mouse,'” Rivers mentioned. “I believe that is how our crew feels. We will not care where by, when, why, what. We just want to go following our goal. I’m talking by myself on that.”

On the Clippers’ season up until finally the postponement, Rivers added: “We are genuinely great. What I know for authentic was the very last ten online games, we were being turning into the Clippers. You could virtually come to feel it. . . . We started off knowing every other . . . we were being enjoying seamlessly by way of Kawhi and PG — it wasn’t pressured anymore. Men were not hoping to stay out of every other’s way.

“You could come to feel the rhythm. Even the Lakers reduction [on March 8] where by we, in my viewpoint, played horrendous in that game, and that was a person of our phase-back again online games . . . we even now experienced a possibility and it was our ‘D’ game, you know?”

“I genuinely believed we were being about to make a nuts operate down the stretch. And sadly, bam, it stopped. . . . . I like where by we were being at. And looking at the way we participate in and how we were being coming collectively, this team’s great, I believe we could defeat anybody.”