After playing the entirely of the first quarter during Tuesday night’s game between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Minnesota Timberwolves, Kawhi Leonard went to the bench and eventually made his way into the back. Not long after, Leonard changed out of his uniform into street clothes and left the arena altogether, according to Stephanie Ready of TNT.
Kawhi left the Clippers game after an apparent injury and missed the entire 2Q pic.twitter.com/gXoCah156W
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 13, 2024
Further footage showed that Leonard appeared to say something to Ty Lue prior to the start of the second quarter.
Kawhi on the Clippers bench before leaving the arena with back issues https://t.co/FcTbrvFp4W pic.twitter.com/UC2Z19uNMc
— Oh No He Didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) March 13, 2024
While the two teams were in the locker room for halftime, Leonard was unsurprisingly ruled out for the remainder of the game with thoracic spasms.
Kawhi Leonard is OUT for the remainder of Clippers-Wolves with thoracic spasms.
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) March 13, 2024
At the time of his departure, Leonard had six points on 2-for-4 shooting from the field with two rebounds and two assists.
Long viewed as the poster child of the NBA’s load management era, Leonard has been quite durable for the Clippers during the 2023-24 campaign. Tuesday night’s game against Minnesota was Leonard’s 58th of the year, which is officially the most that he’s played in a single season since joining Los Angeles in the summer of 2019.
We’ll keep you updated as more information becomes public about Leonard’s injury and whether he’ll need to miss any time going forward.
