The Athletic: Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers are on a heater. Is it sustainable?

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For years, Kawhi Leonard has told us how to tell if he was feeling his best. Leonard would say to watch how well he was moving. LA Clippers coach Tyronn Lue has cited Leonard’s rebounding as a sign that the future Hall of Famer had the juice to play at the highest level.

Leonard only had three dunks in 10 games through the end of November, a particularly forgettable month for him and the franchise. But when Leonard dunked on Portland Trail Blazers center Donovan Clingan on Friday, it was clear he was bringing heightened aggression:

The Clippers (10-21) have won four straight games, tied with the Phoenix Suns for the NBA’s longest active win streak. On Sunday, Leonard tied a franchise record with 55 points in a game — the first 50-point performance of his career — during a 112-99 win over the Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons. The previous Clippers single-game scoring record was set last month by none other than Leonard’s teammate and bucket-in-crime, James Harden. Check out the vibes:

The greatest locker room video you’ll ever watch… 👇 pic.twitter.com/f9BBhszJ0y

— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) December 29, 2025

What Leonard did to the Pistons was nothing short of unfair. It started with Harden taking the scoring lead, and the Clippers benefited from shutting down All-NBA point guard Cade Cunningham, who had three fouls in a scoreless first quarter while LA established a double-digit lead. The Clippers have led by more than 10 points in 17 games this season, which suggests their record should be much better; they have lost seven of those games.

Leonard scored 15 points in the second quarter, then 26 in the third, reaching the 50-point mark with a quarter to spare. Just like the Portland game, Leonard seemed to get himself going with a vicious attack on the rim, nearly posterizing Detroit backup center Isaiah Stewart; Leonard made 11 consecutive field-goal attempts after his dunk attempt:

Leonard’s 55-point performance came only five days after he put up 41 on the Houston Rockets, the team with the second-best point differential in the league. That was Leonard’s first 40-point game in more than two years. If you have a Thompson twin on your team, Leonard has been giving your team buckets.

But is this hot stretch sustainable? This four-game win streak started after a demoralizing five-game losing skid littered with clutch-time failures, blown leads, and straight-up blowouts.

The winning streak started with Leonard emptying the effort tank on a Saturday night at home against the Los Angeles Lakers, playing a season-high 41:53 despite the Clippers holding a 22-point second-half lead. The Lakers started that game without Austin Reaves, Deandre Ayton, and Rui Hachimura, and Luka Dončić was unable to play after halftime, leaving LeBron James as the only regular Lakers starter to finish the game. The Clippers, victims of hot opponent shooting before this win streak, received the gift of the Lakers shooting a season-worst 15.8 percent from 3. That game also saw the Clippers lose starting center Ivica Zubac to an ankle sprain that will keep him out for several weeks.

When Lue was asked about the effort Leonard played with against the Lakers and whether it can persist for a Clippers team that still aims to finish the season with a winning record, Lue had a matter-of-fact response ready.

“That’s what we need him to do: him and James playing at a high level every single night,” Lue said.

Tyronn Lue explains Derrick Jones Jr. progress, and I asked T Lue about sustaining the kind of workload and effort that Kawhi Leonard put out to lead the Clippers to a win Saturday night vs Lakers

“When he’s rebounding the basketball, we know that he’s engaged” pic.twitter.com/URNVhVvpiC

— Law Murray 🎄 (@LawMurrayTheNU) December 22, 2025

The Clippers followed that win by making 20 3s for the first time all season against the Rockets. In Portland, the Clippers made 20 more 3s, with fill-in starting center Brook Lopez making a career-high nine of them in his 18th NBA season. The 3-point shooting came down only a tad against the Pistons, as LA made 14 of 34 (41.2 percent), with 18-year veteran Nicolas Batum making four in the first half alone. The Clippers also made 8 of 17 shots in the midrange.

During these four games, Leonard has cooked from everywhere, punctuated by his performance against the Pistons. Leonard has made 15 of 22 field goals in the restricted area since Dec. 20, a 68.2 percent conversion rate, and 11 of 21 shots (52.4 percent) from elsewhere in the paint. Watch here as Leonard takes advantage of Lopez’s perimeter threat and gets to the rim via a Lopez ball screen in a spread pick-and-roll through uncalled contact:

Leonard was cold in the midrange in the week before the Detroit game, missing 7 of 8 non-paint 2s. But Leonard scorched the Pistons by making 6 of 8 attempts from that range. Tight spacing in front of the Clippers bench allowed three Pistons defenders to contest a Leonard pull-up after another Lopez pick-and-pop, and it did not matter:

And then there’s the increased activity that Leonard has shown. Leonard hasn’t just been scoring. He has been rebounding and making the big defensive plays. Before LA’s current four-game win streak, he had only one double-digit rebound game all season. Leonard grabbed a season-high 12 rebounds (including six offensive rebounds) against the Lakers, then added 11 against the Pistons the following weekend. Leonard has blocked six shots during the win streak and has collected 11 steals, including five against the Pistons. Here he is avoiding a Jalen Duren off-ball screen and getting a pick-six dunk off a Tobias Harris pass intended for Duncan Robinson:

The increased effort, volume and intensity have also shown in how Leonard is looking to score. He’s taking his lethal 97.6 percent free-throw shooting to the stripe more often. Before these four wins, Leonard had attempted double-digit free throws in a game once all season. He has at least a dozen free-throw attempts in three of the four wins, including a season-high 16 of 17 from the line against the Pistons.

Leonard shared after the Rockets win last week that he is trying “to get as many 3s up as possible.” Against the Pistons, Leonard made 5 of 10 3s, the second time in four games that he has attempted at least 10 3s. Leonard had attempted 10 3s in a game only once all season before this streak.

“I’m trying to get as much 3s as I can up in the game right now,” Leonard said after the win over Detroit. “And then see what happens down the road. If I go, whatever, 0 for 12 or 7 of 12, whatever that is, it’s gonna turn out to just make me better, even if I’m taking a stepback, percentage-wise. That’s the goal, and I’ll keep going for it.”

The Clippers still need to address many concerns. Leonard is being asked to do a lot. Last month, Harden was carrying that burden. Both are in their mid-30s while being tasked with handling a massive portion of the shot creation for a team that has a severe lack of depth in that department. Leonard is averaging 36.4 minutes per game in December, while Harden is at 35.8 minutes.

Top post option Zubac likely won’t be back until mid-January; first-round rookie Yanic Konan Niederhäuser has been Lopez’s backup. Bradley Beal and Chris Paul didn’t work out for myriad reasons, and backup shooting guard Bogdan Bogdanović has already missed half of the Clippers’ games this season with a variety of injuries. That has left the team with Kris Dunn as the only ballhandling relief for Harden and Leonard, while second-round rookie Kobe Sanders is the only ballhandler off the bench in the rotation.

Starting power forward John Collins continues to be a wonky fit; he missed the Pistons game with an illness, and the Clippers outscored Portland by 32 points when Batum was on the floor and Collins was off. But Collins played well against the Lakers (17 points, 12 rebounds, his only double-double of the season) and the Rockets (13 points, three 3s and a season-high five assists after not having a single assist in his first nine starts). How the Clippers determine Collins’ role now that Derrick Jones Jr. has returned from a six-week absence due to a sprained right MCL bears watching. LA’s bench scored only 11 points in Portland and just five against the Pistons.

Still, LA has found a way to score a league-leading 126.2 points per 100 possessions since Dec. 20, while only the Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics have allowed fewer than the 108.7 points per 100 possessions that the Clippers have allowed during their win streak. Home games loom against the Sacramento Kings, Utah Jazz and Golden State Warriors, in addition to a weekend visit from the Celtics.

And even though it took 900 career games (including playoff appearances) for Leonard to finally score 50, he showed that he is capable of reaching that level. If the Clippers are going to continue their push toward respectability, then Leonard will need to continue his extraordinary play. It appears he understands the assignment.

“I’ve never really kind of been in this situation,” Leonard said. “I’m more trying to get guys the ball and just sharing it more than what I’ve been doing. But the coaches need me to be aggressive, all the entire game.”

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