Every Thursday we bring you the Toronto Raptors Player of the Week. This week’s award goes to Kawhi Leonard, who has been excellent the past three games.
Just like that, the Toronto Raptors are back to being perfect. To top it all they even strung together a six-game win streak. The Raptors will face their toughest test during the streak as the Golden State Warriors roll into Toronto in hope of a win.
The Warriors are hoping to keep the NBA on notice by beating the league’s best Raptors, meanwhile, the Raptors will once again need to lean on Kawhi Leonard this week if they hope to come away with a victory.
Leonard had himself a dominant week, even by his standards, he looked completely locked in and essentially bullied anyone covering him. He’s a force of nature when he is rolling and very few people stand a chance at stopping him.
Kawhi Leonard’s week
Leonard has been playing wonderfully this season, but this week was an exclamation mark as he stomped his way through teams.
It started off on the best foot possible for Leonard and the Raptors as the streaky Washington Wizards rolled into town and were fed their lunch. Leonard completely took over the game, beating a mixture of defenders as he eased his way to 12-22 shooting and a game-high 27 points. Although the win was a team effort, it was clear to anyone watching that Leonard was the deciding factor.
The winds didn’t slow as the Miami Heat came to town, even with the 35 points from the ageless wonder Dwayne Wade that wasn’t enough to overcome this Raptors team. Leonard had himself a night, scoring a team-high 29 points and grabbing 10 rebounds for his 6th double-double on the season, but the real headline of the game was that Leonard earned himself his first technical foul (421 games) after arguing a non-call.
Wrapping the week with a pretty bow, Leonard helped lead the Raptors in a 17-point come from behind win over the Memphis Grizzlies.
Winning is great, but the real victory this week was Leonard health. At the start of the season, many were a skeptic if Leonard’ quad would be able to hold through the season, the Raptors have even taken the smart/precautionary approach of resting him on back-to-backs in fear of re-injury. But, if this week has taught me anything it’s that he is as healthy as he’s ever been. A healthy Leonard is a force on both sides of the ball and should not be messed around with, other teams beware.
Missed the Cut
Fred VanVleet had himself a great bounce-back week as he’s been struggling for about the whole season. He put up three good performances and was one of the leaders behind the Grizzlies win. It’s great to see FVV playing back up to his normal, as he is going to be key in helping the ‘bench mob’ find and keep its form.
Other possible standouts were the normal candidates of Kyle Lowry, and Pascal Siakam as both of them had standout games throughout the week, although not consistent enough to usurp Leonard of the title this week.
Make sure to check out the Raptors Player of the Week every Thursday on RaptorsRapture.com