The fact that he made the All-NBA Second Team in 2023-24 aside, it felt like Kawhi Leonard had fallen off the national stage. A knee injury cut his 2024 postseason short and the LA Clippers bowed out quietly to the Dallas Mavericks in six games. He was subsequently pulled from the Olympic team and missed the first two and a half months of the 2024-25 season while recovering, and the Clippers thrived even in his absence.
Then Game 2 of this season’s first-round series against the Denver Nuggets rolled around. Leonard was undeniable — 39 points, three boards, five assists, two steals, one block, and a 92.0% true shooting percentage — and the images of a jubilant 27-year-old Leonard in the Toronto Raptors’ red and white made the rounds on the internet again.
If LA wants to advance to face the Oklahoma City Thunder, it needs two more games of vintage Leonard, beginning with tonight’s 10 p.m. ET clash at the Intuit Dome.
On DraftKings Sportsbook, the Clippers are 6.5-point favorites, with the total is set for 211.5. Below, I’ve detailed my favorite prop bets centered around Fun Guy.
Best Kawhi Leonard Prop Bets on DraftKings Sportsbook
Kawhi Leonard U24.5 Points (-125)
Since his 39-point outburst, Leonard hasn’t scored more than 24 points in any game, a trend that could continue tonight. It’s not because he’s played particularly poorly across that stretch, though; 46-40-60 shooting splits aren’t horrible, free-throw shooting aside, and he’s at least topped 20 points in every contest. Instead, he’s recorded nine or more rebounds in each of the last three games and had his first career 10-plus-assist playoff game in Game 5. He’s also played pretty tough defense, especially on Gordon, who’s just two-for-14 from the field this series when guarded by The Klaw.
Denver hasn’t had many ways to stop him just yet, and he was characteristically efficient in Game 5, shooting eight-for-15 from the field, even though he surprisingly missed four of his seven free throw attempts. On Tuesday night, he opted to feed the hot hand, dishing out five assists to Kris Dunn — who had 15 points on six-for-seven shooting — and two more to Ivica Zubac, who led the team with 27 points. Leonard has long been underrated as a facilitator, and playing cerebral basketball this series doesn’t necessarily mean he has to score.
Kawhi Leonard O4.5 Assists (+120)
Speaking of Leonard’s passing, 4.5 assists is a pretty low line, given the performance that he put on last night. He’s topped that number in three of the five games this series, has averaged more than five dimes per game in three of his five postseason runs in LA, and averaged more than 4.5 assists per game in each of his first two seasons with the Clippers. He hadn’t gotten the chance to facilitate as much during the regular season as he ramped his way back up to prime form, but he’s long shown that he’s both a willing and capable passer.
The way that he’s racking up assists is sustainable. In Game 5, the Nuggets usually put Gordon on him but would frequently send help defense as Leonard drove towards the lane. Denver would rather risk conceding an open three to Dunn or Derrick Jones Jr. than let Leonard operate downhill, and consistently, Leonard found the open man. Dunn has hit 40.9% of his wide-open threes this postseason, which is 7.4-percentage-point improvement relative to the regular season but not a particularly anomalous jump. As long as the Nuggets don’t start closing out on Dunn, Leonard should continue to excel as a playmaker.
