Toronto Raptors: Kawhi Leonard continues to carry the weight

Every Thursday we bring you the Toronto Raptors Player of the Week. This week’s award goes to Kawhi Leonard, who has been impressive the past three games.

Despite this week being plagued by injuries for the Toronto Raptors, they did their best to claw their way to victory, falling short on a pair of occasions. The unavailability of both Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka throughout the week clearly played a large factor in the team’s success. The return of Kawhi Leonard proved essential as he did the majority of the offensive lifting for the team this week.

The lackluster bench continues to be a thorn in the side of the Raptors. Last year’s premier bench unit has been reduced to a below-average squad since the departure of Jakob Poeltl. Luckily for the Raptors, their friendly neighborhood superstar was around to do his thing.

Kawhi Leonard’s week

The week started on the wrong foot as the Raptors fell just short against the Portland Trail blazers. The starters dominated for the Raptors as the bench was yet again a letdown, going -32 as a unit.

The Raptors rolled into Mile High city and quickly ran into the buzzsaw that is the Denver Nuggets, marking the second loss against the Nuggets this season. The bench continued to disappoint as it only scored 15 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. Leonard himself scored 29 points and grabbed 14 rebounds.

But the biggest story from the game actually came afterward during the press scrum, as head coach Nick Nurse used his time to vent his frustrations. Nurse took the time to talk about the infuriating non-calls against his best player throughout the entirety of the game.

Nurse was fined $15,000 by the league for criticizing referees but it seemed to have an effect as Leonard’s free throws increased from four against the Nuggets to seven and nine in the next two games.

Even with the calls the fouls clearly wore on Leonard throughout the week. As you could see he was visibly frustrated during the Indiana Pacers game, even giving up on a play (after he thought he was fouled). He shrugged his shoulders as if to ask “What can I do differently?” and walked up the court during a Pacers’ fast break.

But, the Pacers game end on a high-note for Leonard and the Raptors as they fought their way back from a 17-point deficit and grabbed the lead with 25 seconds left and never looked back. Leonard was a beast on both sides of the floor, either playing crunch time defense or finding different ways to score 28 points.

All in all Leonard had a dominant week, outscoring the entirety of his team in all three games, and even out performing the entire bench.

Missed the cut

Once again there is no real competitor this week. Too many players were either injured or played poorly during at least one game. Leonard did a lot of load-bearing this week, hopefully, Lowry and Ibaka can return soon to help ease the strain.

Make sure to check out the Raptors Player of the Week every Thursday on RaptorsRapture.com