Kawhi Leonard Set To Return For Spurs

DECEMBER 12, 11:56am: Leonard will play on Tuesday night, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich confirmed today (Twitter link via Michael C. Wright of ESPN). The star forward will be on a minutes restriction.

DECEMBER 8, 2:29pm: Leonard is now targeting Tuesday’s game in Dallas for his return, league sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski and Michael Wright of ESPN (Twitter link). The Spurs don’t play on Sunday or Monday, so delaying his debut until next week would give Leonard a few extra recovery days without missing multiple games.

DECEMBER 7, 2:43pm: The Spurs could welcome Kawhi Leonard back to the lineup as soon as this Saturday, Jabari Young of the San Antonio Express-News writes. The forward has been held out of action with a quad injury since late September.

While Leonard seems optimistic about his imminent return, the team will have a better idea of his status after they re-evaluate him on Friday. Leonard, Young writes, participated in a final workout session with the team today.

Leonard has missed all 25 games for the Spurs this season while recovering from right quadriceps tendinopathy but has slowly ramped up his activity in practice over the last few weeks.

Just last season, the 26-year-old took his game to a new level, averaging 25.5 points and 5.8 rebounds per game while guiding the Spurs to the Western Conference Finals. The well-rested 2016-17 MVP finalist will look to pick up exactly where he left off.

He looked great [in practice],” Tony Parker, who just returned from his own quad injury, told reporters. “I almost forgot he was that good.

Soon enough we’ll all remember.

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