Kawhi is back in town — here’s what to expect
This is a web version of CBC Sports’ daily email newsletter. Stay up to speed on what’s happening in sports by subscribing here.
Here’s what you need to know right now from the world of sports:
Kawhi is back in town
If we accept the premise that physical calendars are still a thing, then this is the night Canadian basketball fans have had circled on theirs. Kawhi Leonard returns to Toronto for the first time since the NBA Finals MVP left to sign with the Los Angeles Clippers. The game is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET. Here’s some other stuff to know ahead of the big reunion:
Kawhi will play. Hey, you never know with the master of load management. But he sat out the Clippers’ last game (Monday in Indiana) so he should be good to go tonight. If you’re wondering, Leonard has missed seven of L.A.’s 25 games. That’s 28 per cent. Last season, he skipped about 27 per cent of the Raptors’ regular-season games. Just like when he was with Toronto, Kawhi avoids playing on back-to-back nights. He also missed three games in a row about a month ago with a bruised knee.
Kawhi will get his championship ring. Remember these monstrosities?
The Raptors will present one to Kawhi in a pre-game ceremony. He may want to declare that at customs on the way home.
Kawhi is doing just fine with his new team. He’s averaging 25.1 points — down a point and a half from his career-high 26.6 last season. But he’s also dishing out two more assists per game and grabbing rebounds at a slightly higher rate. He’s averaging career highs in both those categories.
The Clippers look as good as advertised. They’re second in the Western Conference with an 18-7 record — trailing only the 21-3 Lakers. Pretty good considering Kawhi sat all those games and his wingman, Paul George, missed the first 11 games of the season as he recovered from shoulder surgery. He’s averaging about 24 points since coming back. L.A.’s No. 3 scorer is former Raptor Lou Williams, who’s averaging 20. Even though he rarely starts, he plays a starter’s minutes. That’s part of the reason why he’s won back-to-back NBA Sixth Man of the Year awards.
The Raptors *were* doing fine without Kawhi. A week ago, it was fair to wonder (and I actually did) whether they even missed him. At the time, Toronto had the third-best record in the league and the second-best point differential. Their ranking in offensive efficiency was exactly the same as it was last season (fifth), and their defensive ranking was even better (up from fifth to third). But things have gone south since then. The Raps lost three in a row to good teams (Miami, Houston and Philadelphia) before barely beating a bad Chicago team on Monday. Still, they’re 16-7 and in fifth place in the Eastern Conference — about where most people figured heading into the season.
A bunch of things will be different from the first Kawhi/Raptors reunion. That game was Nov. 11 in L.A. Kawhi had an off night: he scored only 12 points, shot 2-of-11 from the floor and turned the ball over nine times. George was still out. But the Clippers got to the free-throw line a lot more than the Raptors, badly outrebounded them and held Toronto’s newly crowned franchise player, Pascal Siakam, to only 16 points even though he played 44 of the 48 minutes. L.A. won 98-88. However, both Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka missed that game with injuries. They’re back now after fairly long absences. But Fred VanVleet is listed as a game-time decision. He bruised his knee Sunday in Philly and sat out Monday’s game in Chicago. Like Siakam, VanVleet helped key the Raps’ hot start to the season by playing a ton of minutes and scoring a lot of points.
Kawhi will get a warm welcome back. He said at today’s pre-game media scrum that he actually expects more boos than cheers. But that seems doubtful. Sure, Raptors fans hoped he’d re-sign last summer. But everyone knew the deal when Toronto traded for him — Kawhi wanted to go home to Southern California when he became a free agent. The fact that he delivered a surprise championship to Toronto before he left was more than anyone could have dreamed. There’s only love for Kawhi, and you’ll see that tonight.
Quickly…
The Yankees made Gerrit Cole the highest-paid pitcher of all time. New York has reportedly poached him from rival Houston with a deal worth $324 million US over nine years. That’s the most total money and the highest average annual salary ever given to a pitcher — breaking the record set way back… on Monday when Washington re-signed Stephen Strasburg for seven years and $245 million. Cole was an OK pitcher who the Astros transformed into one of the best in baseball after acquiring him two years ago. Incorporating their advice on what kind of pitches he should throw and where in the strike zone he should throw then, Cole went on a 19-0 tear from late May until he lost the World Series opener. He led the majors with 326 strikeouts in the regular season. Read more about him and his contract here.
Bianca Andreescu picked up another award. She won the Women’s Tennis Association’s Newcomer of the Year, which goes to someone who cracked the top 100 in the world rankings for the first time and/or did other notable things she hadn’t done before. For Bianca, that meant winning her first three titles — including her first Grand Slam, the U.S. Open. She finished the season ranked No. 5 after being No. 152 at this time last year. On Monday, Andreescu won the Lou Marsh Award for Canadian athlete of the year.
Russian boxers are threatening to boycott the Olympics. The country’s head boxing official says all his fighters have told him they won’t go to the Tokyo Games next summer if Russia is still not allowed to send an official team. That’s likely to be the case after the World Anti-Doping Agency on Monday banned Russia from most big international sporting events for the next four years because of continued violations. Russians with a clean doping record are still allowed to complete as so-called «neutral» athletes (they can’t use their country’s name, flag or anthem) but apparently the boxers aren’t interested in that. Russia has three weeks to appeal the ban, and President Vladimir Putin hinted that it will do so on the grounds that collective punishment, as a legal principle, has been rejected for centuries. Read more about the potential boxing boycott here.
And finally…
An NFL star called in sick and then got caught bowling. Running back Le’Veon Bell told the Jets he wasn’t feeling well enough to play on Sunday. But he was spotted out on the lanes on Saturday night until 1 a.m. He got away with it: coach Adam Gase said Bell didn’t break any team rules. Still, not a great look, especially when you’re making $15 million and haven’t done much all season. And Bell says he rolled a lifetime-best 251. He might need a doctor’s note next time.
That’s it. You’re up to speed. Want more writing like this sent straight to your inbox? Subscribe to The Buzzer below.
