Suns advance to round two after more injury issues for Kawhi Leonard

The Phoenix Suns and Denver Nuggets were the first two teams out of the Western Conference to advance to round two on Tuesday. Both franchises reached the Conference semi-finals after game five wins. The Nuggets beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 112-109 at Ball Arena in Denver to win their series four games to one, and the Suns beat the Los Angeles Clippers 136-130 in a high scoring contest at the Footprint Center in Phoenix to win their series four games to one.

The biggest story on Wednesday morning in the NBA is centered around Clippers All-Star small forward Kawhi Leonard of Los Angeles, California–on the court and off of it. We now know why Leonard did not play the last three playoff games, all Suns wins. According to Max Molski of Yahoo! Sports, Leonard had a torn meniscus in his right knee. The injury was suffered during game one on April 16 according to ESPN. Leonard played game two, but not game three. When you add to the fact that Paul George had not played for the Suns since March 21, it is not surprising that Phoenix won in five.

Over the years Leonard has faced his fair share of injuries. They include a right quadriceps ailment, and a torn anterior cruciate ligament which forced him to miss the entire 2021-22 season. 

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Off the court, Leonard found out this past week that his sister Kimesha has been sentenced to life in prison according to Paul Kasabian of Bleacher Report. Williams was sent to jail without parole for murdering an 84-year-old woman during a robbery at a California casino bathroom in 2019, the same year Leonard won the NBA Finals with the Toronto Raptors.

Devin Booker of Grand Rapids, Michigan, meanwhile was the Suns star in game five. He had an impressive double double with 47 points and 10 assists. According to ESPN, it is the first time that a NBA player had 45 points and 10 assists in a series clinching win. This was also Booker’s 17th 30-point playoff game. This was the most in Suns’s playoff history, as Booker passed the record previously set by Charles Barkley, who had 16 30-point games.

Phoenix meanwhile will play the Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinal. In Denver’s deciding game on Tuesday, Jamal Murray of Kitchener, Ontario, Canada led the way 35 points, while Nikola Jokic of Sombor, Serbia, had a triple double (28 points, 17 rebounds, 12 assists). It was Jokic’s eight career triple double in the postseason. Only Wilt Chamberlain has more triple doubles with nine.

Meanwhile, in the Eastern Conference, the Atlanta Hawks stayed alive with a 119-117 win over the Boston Celtics. Trae Young of Lubbock, Texas, led the Hawks with 38 points and 13 assists. Young’s most memorable basket came at the end of the game with 2.8 seconds left from 30 feet to give the Hawks a two-point lead. The Celtics still lead the best out of seven series three games to two.

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