LA Clippers: Three things to watch for as Kawhi Leonard faces former team

Kawhi Leonard faces his former team, the Toronto Raptors after he left them for the LA Clippers. Here are three things to watch for.

The LA Clippers are finally back in action tonight as they host the reigning champions, the Toronto Raptors. It’s no secret that they aren’t the same as the team that won last year, though. Kawhi Leonard left the cold in Toronto to join the Clippers in the biggest move of the summer. Now, he faces his former team for the first time. For tonight’s big game, here are three things to watch for.

1. Get out to a quick start

The LA Clippers have not been great at starting games. Without looking at the stats, I think every fan who has watched them this season could tell you they just cannot get it going. The stats do confirm what we see though. Through nine games played, the Clippers rank 28th in the league in points scored in the first quarter with just 25.1 per game.

The Raptors are better, but not elite. They sit at 13th in the league with 28.0 points in the first quarter.

The Clippers could do well to get out to a hot start. The Raptors are going to be on their second game of a back-to-back, having just beat the Los Angeles Lakers last night. The game remained close, so if the Clippers can get out to an early lead, a tired Raptors team could be put away quickly.

This all starts with Kawhi Leonard. He has not been able to come out swinging yet. In fact, he only averages 11.0 points in the first half of games. In the second half, he’s averaging a cool 18.0. If Leonard should be motivated to shoot often early (more on that in a second), so the team will likely go as he does.

2. Leonard versus Siakam

The marquee matchup of the night will be Kawhi Leonard versus Pascal Siakam. The Finals MVP is still the better player, but Siakam (fresh off a Most Improved Player Award) is looking extremely good this season.

He’s nearly averaging a double-double, scoring an impressive 27.4 points and 9.4 rebounds per game. He’s also adding in 3.7 assists and 0.8 steals per game. Siakam looks like an All-Star and could single-handedly carry this Raptors team through the rest of the season and into the playoffs. With Kyle Lowry out with an injured thumb and then possibly on the trade block, Sikam may just have to do that.

Kawhi is putting up similar, albeit better, numbers, averaging 29.0 points, 8.1 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 2.1 steals and 1.1 blocks.

The two will battle hard tonight as surely Siakam will want to prove that the Raptors are still contenders even with the departure of Leonard. Siakam did play a hair over 42 minutes last night, so hopefully, he will be a little worn down for tonight’s matchup.

3. No Paul George

Now, this isn’t something necessarily “to watch for”, but it’s well worth noting. Paul George has begun five-on-five work at practice but has been already marked as OUT for tonight’s game. With a back-to-back scheduled on Wednesday (at Houston) and Thursday (at New Orleans), we have to assume he makes the return then.

If the Clippers are following what they have done so far, Kawhi will sit out in the first game against Houston. The Clips may decide to stagger their superstars’ rest as there are already rumors that George will only play in one of the two road games.

It would make sense for the team to do so, giving themselves superstar power every night while still keeping both George and Leonard fresh for the postseason run.

The game tips off at 7:30 PST / 10:30 EST. Make sure you follow along with us on Twitter as we live-tweet the game and check back here tomorrow for takeaways!