The City of Angels is officially to be feared in basketball once again.
The Los Angeles Lakers have dominated headlines over the past two weeks after their shock acquisition of Luka Dončić, but the LA Clippers recently got a huge pickup of their own, when superstar Kawhi Leonard made his season debut on January 4. Leonard’s counting stats — 15.7 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 2.6 assists on 46-32-78 shooting splits — aren’t anything to write home about, but the Clippers outscore opponents by 11.9 points per 100 possessions with Leonard on the floor, which would be the second-best mark in the league this season.
Leonard will welcome another former Defensive Player of the Year, Jaren Jackson Jr., to Intuit Dome for the first time tonight as LA hosts the red-hot Memphis Grizzlies for a 10:30 p.m. ET clash.
On DraftKings Sportsbook, the Clippers are 4.5-point favorites and the point total is set to 237.5. Below, I’ve highlighted my favorite prop bets centered around Board Man.
Best Kawhi Leonard Prop Bets on DraftKings Sportsbook
Kawhi Leonard U19.5 Points (-125)
LA is playing its first game in four nights on the first night of a back-to-back, so Leonard should be well-rested, and he probably won’t play tomorrow night on the road in Utah. Clippers coach Tyronn Lue has gradually increased his minutes, and he played more than 30 minutes in each of LA’s previous two games for the first time all season. But he was relatively quiet in those games, scoring 19 points from 16 shots against the Indiana Pacers and adding just 10 on more modest volume two nights later against the Jazz. The Clippers’ offense still relies on James Harden operating with the ball and Norman Powell setting up for catch-and-shoot looks, while any significant production they can get from Leonard at this point is a bonus.
It’s true that Memphis has uncharacteristically struggled against opposing power forwards despite Jackson playing that position, and according to Basketball Reference, Leonard has spent 88% of his minutes at the four this season. Still, the Grizzlies’ defense is elite overall, as they’ve allowed just 110.7 points per 100 possessions, the seventh-stingiest mark in basketball, and although they’ve won mostly via explosive offense in their current hot streak — they’re 10-2 in their last 12 games — they’ve still played above-average defense during that span. Memphis plays at the league’s fastest pace, so Leonard might get more shots, but I don’t think it’ll be enough.
Kawhi Leonard 4+ Assists (+150)
One of the biggest evolutions of Leonard’s game throughout his career has been his playmaking ability. He barely passed the ball in San Antonio, even in the Spurs’ motion-heavy offense, averaging just 2.3 assists per game in his seven-season tenure in Texas. But he has become a key playmaking cog in LA, posting the only five-assist season of his career during the 2020-21 campaign and averaging 4.3 assists per game across his Clippers tenure. He hasn’t been tasked with many playmaking duties so far this season, but he has hit the four-assist threshold four times this season, including in the loss to Indiana.
Mostly because of their fast pace, the Grizzlies have struggled to contain opposing playmakers, as they’ve allowed the 14th-most assists per game to opposing players. In the first three games in which LA had its first-choice starting lineup of Harden, Leonard, Powell, Derrick Jones Jr., and Ivica Zubac, Fun Guy averaged 5.3 potential assists per game, the third-most on the team. He’ll probably have to take on additional playmaking duties tonight with new acquisition Ben Simmons not yet available to suit up.
