Getty Kawhi Leonard, Clippers; Dwight Howard, Lakers
In 31 minutes this season, Los Angeles Clippers All Star Kawhi Leonard is averaging 25.5 points, 7.8 rebounds, 5 assists, 1,8 steals and 0.7 blocks.
He’s a stats stuffer. He’s also caught the attention of Love & Hip Hop’s Jim Jones. “Kawhi reminds me of a stiff Michael Jordan,” Jim Jones tells Scoop B Radio.
“I’ve been telling people that.”
Jones is also a member of the hip hop group, Dipset that include Cam’ron, Hell Rell, Freekey Zeeky and Juelz Santana.
In 2006 Jones dropped smash hit We Fly High (Ballin), his most successful single to date.
“When he gets on the court, he has a determination like nothing can stop him,” said Jones of Kawhi Leonard.
“And it’s incredible of how he gets those shots off. He doesn’t have the most moves or dances all across the court. He kind of gets to it, buckets up and scores. But his determination definitely has a Michael Jordan feel to it.”
Currently the Clippers are in second place in the NBA’s Western Conference with a 21-8 record.
“I think the Clippers are one of the best watches in the NBA,” ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne told me on the Scoop B Radio Podcast.
The Clips’ roster is loaded with notbales like Lou Williams, Montrezl Harrell, Patrick Beverley, Landry Shamet, Ivica Zubac, and Paul George.
Harrell is a contender for the NBA’s Most Improved Player of the Year of Award with averages of 19 points, 7.5 rebounds, 2 assists and 1.2 blocks per contest.
Zubac is a throwback standard issue big man and is solid with season averages of 8.2 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1 block per contest.
The Croatian 7-footer spent some time as a Los Angeles Laker last season before being traded. He had a coming out party during LA’s Christmas day game against the Golden State Warriors. In that game Zu scored 18 points and hauled in 11 rebounds in LA’s win.
LeBron James injured his groin in that game and missed important games in January, which gave Zubac extended time.
This summer, Zubac worked out with NBA Hall of Famer, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
It helped him.
“Pops to Zubac for recognizing that that could be an asset for him,” NBA writer, Alex Kennedy told me on the Scoop B Radio Podcast.
“You know, Kareem talked about the shot and said, it’s a high percentage shot if you do it correctly, you can also draw the foul, and then it becomes a three-point play, and in today’s game, as much as people want to get away from mid-range shooting in today’s game, advanced analytics actually back that shot up because it’s an NBA three-point play and we know, you know, obviously today in the NBA it’s all about finishing right at the rim and getting a three-point play, so Kareem was surprised that more players hadn’t reached out to him and expressed their interest in learning that shot.”
Paul George is living his best life in LA. The Southern California native is posting an impressive 24.7 points, 5.9 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.6 steals per game and is a solid anchor alongside Kawhi Leonard.
Arguably the best player on the Clippers’ roster last season, Lou Williams is averaging 19.9 points, 3.2 rebounds and 6.3 assists for Los Angeles.
The Lakers and Clippers are both co-tenants at Staples Center in LA. They’ll go head to head next week on Christmas day. But before that, the Lakers have will face the Milwaukee Bucks tonight in Milwaukee. The Clippers will face the Houston Rockets tonight at Staples Center.