Kawhi shrugs off leg issue after win: ‘I’m good’

The topic of just how hurt Leonard was never went away after he landed awkwardly in the first quarter and came back down court hopping on one leg. It appeared at that time his left leg was bothering him — only for him to, far later in the game, grab at his right leg after he came down court and skied for a massive left-handed fast break slam with 3:13 remaining in double overtime.

After the game, though, the Raptors downplayed any issues. Toronto coach Nick Nurse said he thought Leonard was “OK,” and Leonard himself dismissing any reason to expect him to miss any time in this series.

“I’m good,” he said. “I’m just going to keep fighting. I’m going to be playing.”

He did, though, admit that it took a toll on him to play those career-high minutes to drag the Raptors to a win.

“Definitely,” he said, when asked if it felt like he’d played that many. “It’s 52 minutes, and it’s the playoffs, so you definitely feel it. When you play 30 minutes, you feel it still.

“Just got to not worry about it and get my treatment and move onto the next one.”

When Lowry fouled out midway through the fourth quarter, it was fair to wonder if there would be a relevant next one at all, given a loss would’ve put Toronto in an all-but-fatal 3-0 hole in the series. The Raptors led for virtually all of regulation, and almost all of both overtimes, but did so while getting almost all their points from five players: Leonard, Pascal Siakam (25), Marc Gasol (19), Norm Powell (19) and Lowry (11).

By the end of regulation, though, Lowry and Powell had both fouled out, leaving Nurse to scramble and play Fred VanVleet and Danny Green for the overtimes — during which each hit their first, and only, shots of the game, both from behind the 3-point line.

Lowry, meanwhile, spent at least half the time in his customary seat on the end of the bench, often doing anything but looking at the court as his teammates tried to keep his season alive without him.

“I wasn’t [watching],” Lowry told ESPN. “I was just trying to will the ball in and will their ball out. But when you believe in my teammates like I do, you’ve just got to support them and do everything you can possibly do.

“That’s the one thing about it. It f—ing sucked, but we won, so it really is all that matters.”

That the Raptors did was, as usual, in large part down to Leonard. While Nurse didn’t change up his starting lineup, he did alter both rotations and defensive assignments — including having Leonard spend far more time on the NBA’s presumptive Most Valuable Player, Giannis Antetokounmpo, than he did in the first two games.

After defending him on just three shots through the first two games, Antetokounmpo went 1-for-9 and scored two points when guarded by Leonard in Game 3, according to ESPN’s Stats and Information Group. When Antetokounmpo went up against anyone else, he was 4-for-7, and scored 10 points.

“Listen, I think Kawhi is the best two-way basketball player in the NBA,” Lowry told ESPN. “I personally believe that.

“And when you have a guy like that, who can do the things he can do defensively, and offensively, you put him on the best player when you need to.”

The Raptors needed to, and it worked. Antetokounmpo eventually fouled out in the second overtime trying to draw a charge on Siakam, ending his night with 12 points, 23 rebounds, seven assists, four blocks and eight turnovers.

It was also a bounceback performance from both Siakam — 25 points, 11 rebounds and three steals — and Gasol — 16 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists and five blocks — after both had struggled in the first two games of the series.

It was Siakam’s two missed free throws at the end of regulation, however, that gave Khris Middleton a chance to tie the game in the dying seconds and send the contest to overtime.

When the game was over, though, and the victory in hand, Leonard wasn’t tired enough to avoid giving his teammate a hard time.