Kawhi says knee is ‘good,’ taking things slowly

HONOLULU — Kawhi Leonard said the inflammation in his right knee is feeling good and that he and the LA Clippers medical staff are taking things slowly to try and prevent his knee from becoming an issue later in the season.

Leonard spent Clippers training camp in Hawai’i focusing on strengthening his surgically-repaired right knee. He said there hasn’t been a plan set yet on how he and the Clippers will approach playing in back-to-back games yet.

“I feel good,” Leonard said at halftime of the Clippers 91-90 preseason loss to the Golden State Warriors at the Stan Sheriff Center on Saturday. “Just been taking my time, getting stronger, and getting ready.

“… We’re just taking it slow, day by day and just trying to get me back on the floor. Once those conversations come, we’ll see what they’re talking about [on the best approach for back-to-backs].”

Leonard played in 68 regular season games last season — the most he has logged since the 2016-17 season — before missing the final eight regular-season games with inflammation in his right knee. Leonard returned to play in Games 2 and 3 of the Clippers’ first-round series vs. the Dallas Mavericks but the inflammation returned and he was held out of the remainder of the six-game series.

While he has been very encouraged by the fact that he played in 52 and then 68 games in the past two seasons after missing all of the 2021-22 season with a torn right ACL, Leonard has said he is focused on winning a championship and staying as healthy as he can at the most important part of the season — the playoffs.

Leonard, 33, wants to play in as many games as he can. But he also has to keep an eye on the big picture and remaining healthy when it matters most.

“This is what I work for,” the two-time Finals MVP said. “I strive to get a championship and I’m not out there to try to [solely] play 82 games. I’m trying to win, even though [playing as much as I can] that’s obligated for me. I try to. But it hasn’t worked out [the last two postseasons] so we’ll see.”

The Clippers could decide to hold their franchise star out of playing back-to-backs this season.

Leonard said on Clippers media day that he and the medical staff had a better handle on the inflammation in his right knee and that he felt better than he had. But he also said he was doing everything he can to ensure that the inflammation does not return.

“It’s not really based on how I’m feeling,” Leonard said. “It’s more of just listening to the doctors and seeing what I can do to prevent what I have been doing because I’ve been doing a lot — a lot of stuff that probably has me where I am now.”

When asked if he needs to play in a preseason game before playing in the season opener, Leonard said there’s always “a buildup… especially in the position I’m in.”

When Leonard is on the court and healthy, he covers a lot of ground on defense while also being physical inside against bigger players at power forward. The Clippers and Leonard will have to assess how to limit the pounding the All-Star takes.

“We got to control what we can control,” Leonard said. “I probably ran like top-five most miles per game last year or top 10. And that was coming off [a] torn meniscus [in the 2023 playoffs]. So we got to see if that’s beneficial for me or not.”