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TSN Raptors Reporter

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PHILADELPHIA – Perhaps the greatest form of flattery for a player is when the guys most familiar with your game run out of new ways to describe it.
 
“He’s pretty good,” Raptors centre Marc Gasol said of Kawhi Leonard moments after Toronto’s big 101-96 Game 4 win over the 76ers on Sunday. As a member of the Memphis Grizzlies, Gasol faced Leonard in a couple of playoff series, including the 2013 Western Conference Finals, and was on the floor when the former Spur scored a then career-high of 43 points in the 2017 postseason.
 
“He’s really good at basketball.”
 
“That's Kawhi, man,” said Serge Ibaka, who had some memorable battles with Leonard’s San Antonio teams when he was in Oklahoma City. “You know, that's what he does for a living. We all know that. It's not a surprise.”
 
“He’s been doing it time and time again,” said Danny Green, a teammate of Leonard’s for the entirety of his eight-year NBA career, who’s witnessed all of his greatest hits firsthand. “He’s getting better with time and [with] each game.”
 
Toronto’s 27-year-old superstar forward had just turned in another dominant, albeit business-like playoff performance, only you wouldn’t know it from watching him work. He wasn’t beating his chest, literally or figuratively, but he did score 39 points, grab 14 rebounds and hit the game’s biggest shot. He may have saved the Raptors’ season in the process.
 
With Philadelphia up 2-1 in the series and the Raptors facing the possibility of heading back to Toronto on the brink of almost certain elimination – fewer than five per cent of teams down 3-1 in a playoff series have come back to win it – the score was tied going into a pivotal fourth quarter.
 
It was the tightest game of the series and also the most tense. Neither team shot the ball well and Toronto’s rotation was essentially down to six players – with the struggling Fred VanVleet and Norman Powell rendered unplayable – and that’s including Pascal Siakam, who gutted it out on one leg.
 
Unlike the Game 2 and 3 losses, Leonard actually had help on Sunday. Gasol and Kyle Lowry, who both vowed to be better, played better while Ibaka bounced back and picked up the hobbled Siakam.
 
However, with the game and their season on the line, the Raptors put the ball in Leonard’s gargantuan hands, like they’ve done so many times before.

Leonard led the league with nine buckets to tie or take the lead in the final minute of the fourth quarter or overtime during the regular season, shooting a remarkably efficient 9-for-18 in those high-pressure moments.
 
On Sunday, with a minute left and his team up by one point, Leonard hit the dagger – a tough, 26-foot step-back jumper over the outstretched arm of Joel Embiid just as the shot clock was about to expire. 
 
“At the time I looked up at the shot clock and tried to create as much space as possible,” Leonard said. “I just took a shot and believed it would go in, and it did.”
 
“The stuff that he can get off – and we had two people out there – the stuff that he can do to create his own shot is Kobe [Bryant]-like for me,” said 76ers head coach Brett Brown. “He's just so gifted in relation to doing that.”
 
It’s a nice sentiment, but not even Bryant has done what Leonard is doing in this series. Few have.
 
Through four second-round games, Leonard is averaging 38 points on a ridiculous 62 per cent shooting. Michael Jordan averaged over 35 points on 60 per cent shooting or better in just one playoff series over his legendary career. LeBron James never did it. Bryant never did it.
 
Leonard is the fifth player in NBA history to record at least 150 points, 30 rebounds and 15 assists through the first four games of a playoff series, according to ESPN. The other guys on that list are Jordan, Rick Barry, Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor – all of them hall of famers and the types of players Leonard has watched, studied and learned from.
 
“Just really growing up and learning from players, watching great players and seeing how they control the game and play at their own speed and trying not to be rushed,” Leonard said of his unique style, which he credits for his postseason success, not just this year but throughout his time with San Antonio. “I was fortunate enough to be on some pretty good teams early, so I was able to see defences, go on deep playoff runs, and try to establish that early. I feel that probably helped me out.”
 
A former NBA champion and Finals MVP, Leonard is one of the most efficient and impactful playoff performers ever. He ranks third all-time in win shares per 48 minutes among players that have appeared in at least 80 postseason games, behind Jordan and James and just ahead of Magic Johnson and Jerry West.
 
Perhaps the best and most fitting thing about what he’s done is how he’s doing it. True to character, he remains calm, cool and collected, both in the way he plays and his demeanour on the court.

By his standards, Embiid – the Sixers’ all-star centre and best player – has only had one good game in the series, and he let the Raptors hear about it. He roared, he flexed, he celebrated and he threw down a windmill dunk in the halfcourt with Philly up big late in Game 3 – something that surely didn’t sit well with the opposition.
 
Meanwhile, Leonard has had four historically great games and you’re not going to get much more than an inconspicuous fist pump from him. As usual, he’s comfortable letting his play do the talking.
 
He’s made it look easy, as the great players do. After Sunday’s game he was asked if he’s even breaking a sweat out there.
 
“That’s not fair to the Sixers,” he replied. “I’m definitely breaking a sweat out there.  They’re making me take tough shots. I’m not describing my game; I’m just trying to win. That’s for you guys to do. I’m living in the moment.”