{"id":651081,"date":"2026-03-10T15:24:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T15:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/651081\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T15:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T15:24:16","slug":"nothing-to-be-happy-about-kawhi-leonard-has-a-blunt-response-to-clippers-rising-to-500-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/651081\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cNothing to Be Happy About\u201d: Kawhi Leonard Has a Blunt Response to Clippers Rising to .500 Record"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Clippers have taken a long and arduous road to get there. After enduring a 6-21 start to the season, they have finally clawed their way back to .500 by beating the New York Knicks on Monday night. After the Warriors lost to the hapless Utah Jazz, the Clippers are now tied for eighth in the West with Golden State. More importantly, L.A. holds all the momentum.<\/p>\n

However, catching the Suns, the next team up in the standings, will be a tall order. Phoenix is currently five games up on L.A., and each team has just 18 games left to play.<\/p>\n

Still, pushing past the Warriors and keeping the Blazers (1.5 back) at Bay would ensure that the Clips<\/a> would have two chances at making the playoffs, if need be. And they could avoid a matchup with the 1-seed if they win their first play-in game.<\/p>\n

Kawhi Leonard has been the catalyst behind the Clippers\u2019 resurgence. But in fitting with his personality, he hasn\u2019t rallied his team back from the dead with fiery speeches or inspirational words. As always, Leonard has just been calm, cool, and collected, while averaging 27.9 points per game this season. He hasn\u2019t had fewer than 23 in a game since January, in fact.<\/p>\n

Leonard\u2019s lack of enthusiasm in expressing his feelings, emotions, or energy can be one of the most comical things in the NBA. And he proved it again Monday night when asked what it meant to get back to .500.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cool,\u201d deadpanned<\/a> Leonard. \u201cBut the job ain\u2019t done, the season not over, so I mean it\u2019s what\u2019s expected. Like I told the fellas, we don\u2019t train to lose, we train to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

That last line is actually a bit of a banger. Of course, Leonard\u2019s low monotone makes it hit differently. Leonard had more, though. \u201cLike I said, [the] job is not done, we still got games to play, so there\u2019s nothing to be happy about,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Leonard is the one true heir to that guy in the meme<\/a> who, when told a smile would be good in his Facebook profile picture, replied, \u201cNothing to smile about in my life.\u201d You can only admire the steadfastness with which Kawhi sticks to this part.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to picture Leonard at a birthday party just staring at his cake and gifts with apathy. Or him having an introspective moment on a roller coaster as everyone else screams and throws their arms in the air.<\/p>\n

Regardless of how he goes about doing it, there\u2019s no arguing with Kawhi\u2019s output on the court. He was already on a roll before the team traded James Harden away. And since the Beard left, Leonard has become even more locked in and more consistent.<\/p>\n

Most 32-32 teams don\u2019t worry the top teams in the league. But you can bet that the OKC Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs are keeping their eyes on the Clippers. They\u2019ve been playing much better than their record or seeding suggests for months now. And with Leonard sternly leading the way, they\u2019re going to pose problems for anyone they face in April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Clippers have taken a long and arduous road to get there. After enduring a 6-21…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3789],"tags":[7,559,529,4034,192,4032,251,135,4033,4031,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-651081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-clippers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-clippers","10":"tag-kawhi-leonard","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-la-clippers","13":"tag-laclippers","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-losangelesclippers","18":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116205575677908012","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}