Kawhi Leonard plans to play in the LA Clippers’ regular season opener as he recovers from his surgically repaired right knee.
“We’ll figure it out. I’m happy that I’m feeling good and it’s feeling a lot better than it was.”
Leonard missed the final eight regular-season games due to inflammation in the knee, which has undergone ACL and meniscus surgeries. Leonard returned for Games 2 and 3 of their first round series against the Dallas Mavericks, but then the inflammation returned.
“We’re taking it day by day,” Leonard said. “Everything has been going great for the past month, but being very cautious for reasons in the past we haven’t been able to finish some playoff runs, so making sure we’re staying healthy for those important moments.
“Trying to maintain it and figure it out. We’ll be in here for a long time if I started describing stuff [about the injury and treatment] … but just learning on how it came and how to keep it down and make sure that we don’t fall in that timeframe of [missing time in] those important [late-season] moments and just making sure I’m healthy.
“There’s certain stuff that we could do or try to do to make me last,” he said. “So we’ll see what happens.”