Who owns the Sixers? Kawhi Leonard. | Marcus Hayes
The league's best two-way player has never lost to the Sixers and he tortures Ben Simmons. Will that change in the Eastern Conference semifinal?
TORONTO — On paper, the Sixers are owned by Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment.
On hardwood, they’re owned by Kawhi Leonard.
Of all of the mind-bending numbers Leonard has amassed against the Sixers in his seven-year career, this one flashes in the brightest Raptors red: 13-0.
That’s Leonard’s career record against the 76ers. When the Eastern Conference semifinal begins here Saturday night, that’s all that really matters. Right?
“The past doesn’t help me at all,” Leonard said.
Yes, it does; especially when past performance is this overwhelming.
Leonard is the best two-way perimeter player in the league, the best since Michael Jordan bequeathed the title to Kobe Bryant. He will guard All-Star guard Ben Simmons. It could be ugly.
According to NBA.com, in their three matchups this season, Leonard guarded Simmons on 115 possessions. Simmons scored a total of 17 points. Simmons also turned the ball over nine times, three as offensive fouls.
Leonard played in three of the four games between the teams this season. He averaged 30.3 points against the Sixers, 3.7 more than his season average. He averaged four steals per game and had an offensive rating of 136, both the most against any team he faced more than once, and his defensive rating of 97 was by far the best against any team he faced more than twice.
The bad news: Leonard is getting better.
Against Orlando, in the first round of the playoffs, he averaged 27.6 points on 55.6 percent shooting and has made 53.8 percent of his three-pointers. He’s made 14 of 26, or as many as J.J. Redick, but on seven fewer attempts. In fact, since the 2015-16 season, when he made 44.3 percent of his threes, Leonard has made 39.3 percent of this three-pointers, 14th among shooters who have attempted at least 1,000 in that time frame.
“I didn’t realize how great of a scorer he was,” said Raptors point guard Fred VanVleet. “I remember being blown away by how good a three-point shooter he is.”
Bryant never had a single season better than 38.3 percent, and Jordan’s best season — 42.7 percent in 1995-96 — wasn’t as good as Leonard’s 2015-16.
Granted, Leonard’s 13-0 record doesn’t include any games from 2017-18, Simmons’ Rookie of the Year season in which the Sixers finally became a viable NBA team. Leonard sat out most of last season recovering from an injury.
That 13-0 record mostly involved Leonard playing with a cast of other Spurs who might end up in the Hall of Fame, led by Tim Duncan. Almost all of those 13 games took place while the Sixers were in Tank-a-delphia mode.
That wasn’t the case in Leonard’s three games against the Sixers this season, but there sometimes were mitigating circumstances. Chief among them: The teams haven’t played since Tobias Harris, Mike Scott, James Ennis, and Boban Marjanovic arrived at the trade deadline. All four played significant roles in the Sixers’ five-game win over the Nets in the opening round.
The teams’ first meeting, at Toronto on Oct 30, was the second of back-to-back games for the Sixers and their third game in four nights. Simmons had nine turnovers. It also preceded the Sixers’ addition of Jimmy Butler. Game 2, in Toronto on Dec. 5, saw Joel Embiid score just 10 points because the Raptors swarmed him with double-teams, after which Embiid declared himself to be “trash.” Simmons turned the ball over seven times.
Leonard didn’t played in the teams’ third meeting, at Philadelphia on Dec. 22 and Simmons had his best game of the season: 26 points on 11-for-13 shooting, with 12 rebounds and eight assists in 34 minutes. Also, only one turnover.
Leonard played in Game 4 at Philadelphia on Feb. 5 and Simmons had a better time of it — only six turnovers in that game — but still lost. Leonard noticed the improvement as Simmons neared the end of his second NBA season.
“Obviously, he’s gotten better,” Leonard said. “Sense of feel, once you get a ton of games under your belt. [Intelligence] comes. He’s able to know what play they’re going to do, where his spots are, and where to get his teammates the ball.”
If that sounds like damning with faint praise, consider that, at 13-0 lifetime and 3-0 this season, Leonard has little reason to praise either Simmons or the Sixers any other way than faintly.