The Los Angeles Lakers broke their losing streak, and in the process, the San Antonio Spurs might break their own.
The Los Angeles Lakers won against the San Antonio Spurs in overtime.
Kyle Kuzma lead all scorers with 30 points, making six of those points in overtime to go along with five rebounds in the game. While the Lakers are already out of the playoff picture, the Spurs remain in the mix for a playoff appearance.
The Spurs, who now have a record of 45-34, have yet to clinch a playoff spot as the 5th seed in the Western Conference. With just three games left in the season, the Spurs are only one game ahead of the 9th seeded Denver Nuggets.
There still no sign or word that Kawhi Leonard intends to return this regular season or potential playoffs, which is unfortunate for the Spurs as they could really use a superstar.
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Leonard has only played nine games this season for the Spurs and there’s confusion around the NBA as to why he hasn’t come back to play as he was cleared to play by the team doctors back in February. In addition to not playing a game since January, last month, Leonard opted to halt negotiations on a new contract with Nike.
Earlier this week, the Spurs had their streak of 18 consecutive 50-win seasons broken. It’s now possible that the Spurs could have yet another streak snapped— 20 seasons with consecutive playoff appearances. Gregg Popovich, the 5th winningest coach in NBA history, and arguably the one of the most respected coach in the NBA might find himself without an All-Star caliber player.
Leonard has two more years on his contract, which he signed back in 2015. Taking into account the projected increase in cap space over the next few years, paying $41 million over two years for Kawhi is a good deal given that he stays healthy in the future.
Safe to say, the Spurs front office will be fielding offers for the former MVP in the offseason. The best case scenario for the Spurs is to find out how they can reconcile the relationship between the team and Leonard so he can stay with the Spurs.
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Ultimately, however, if Kawhi remains on the Spurs’ roster after this upcoming offseason it’s because he wants to stay but if he doesn’t, well, there’s no doubt we could see Kawhi sporting new jersey colors this time next year.