KaWTF

Kawhi Leonard started Game 2 of the Clippers' series against the Nuggets red hot, but the thing about Kawhi Leonard is that he forces very little. Leonard's not quite a reluctant scorer – no one who averages 25 points per game multiple times can be classified as such – but he's never someone hunting his shot because he believes in his own juice. He operates when it makes sense to do so, when he's required to do so. If he's on the floor and James Harden's on the bench: Leonard does his work. If it's crunch time and the Clippers' offense has lost its punch: Leonard does his work.

Kawhi was so hot on Monday night in the Clippers' 105-102 win in Denver that by the end of the fourth quarter he was finally exploring the bounds of what was possible. He seemed to be taking some of the most heat-check shots you'll ever see him take out of a duty to science more than anything else.

The end result: 39 points on 15/19 shooting (4/7 from deep) in 39 minutes with stretches of dominant defense. In a game where shotmaking was hard to come by in stretches for Los Angeles, and in which the Clippers were getting heavy doses of the proven successful Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic tandem, Kawhi straight-up bailed his team out. There are maybe 10 current NBA players who could do what Kawhi did in this game, and a few of them were in this game.

That's what's amazing about this series, which is now two-for-two on classics: you really have no idea what's going to happen. Kawhi's playoff pedigree is impeccable. Injury is really one of the only things that has ever stopped him other than a Chris Bosh kick-out to Ray Allen in the corner for three. Jokic should be the Clutch Player of the Year, Murray has a long resumé of playoff heroics, RUSSELL WESTBROOK IS NAILING CORNER THREES, Aaron Gordon was playing as good defensively as you can expect, Michael Porter Jr. was playing with high energy and ... still, Kawhi, jumper, bucket. Just about every time.