Kawhi Leonard roasted after airball disaster costs Clippers in NBA playoffs

NBA superstar Kawhi Leonard is one of the best players in the competition but with the game on the line, he’s shown he is actually human.

LA Clippers star Kawhi Leonard has learned the hard way that you’re only as good as your last game.

The two-time NBA champion with the San Antonio Spurs in 2014 and 2019 Toronto Raptors was the MVP in both seasons.

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And when he joined the Clippers in 2019-20 along with Paul George the NBA believed that it might spark the franchise to come out of the shadow of the Lakers and bring home the franchise’s first championship.

Two years in the three-year deal though, the Clippers are a loss away from bowing out of the NBA playoffs.

After being eliminated in the Western Conference semi-finals last season to the Denver Nuggets, the Clippers are facing an early elimination again falling 3-2 down in the seven-match series with the Dallas Mavericks.

The 105-100 game five loss may hurt more than most after Leonard missed a shot with four seconds remaining to send it to overtime.

But it was how he missed that caught the attention of the NBA, with an airball leading to mockery on NBA Twitter.

“Tried to pump fake and then was off-balance, pretty much,” Leonard said. “Was leaning back, ended up shooting. Got to do a better job.

“Turnovers, missed shots, we couldn’t get nothing to go in.”

After the game, fans noticed that NBA veteran Rajon Rondo appeared to be frustrated talking to Leonard.

“I think we’re fine,” coach Tyronn Lue said. “We’ll see in two days, but like I said, everybody talked about it in the locker room, we’re good.”

Rajon Rondo wasn't happy with his star.

It was a reasonably quiet night for Leonard’s lofty standard with 20 points, five rebounds and five assists.

Some fans were quick to point to Leonard missing 20 games as a healthy scratch during the regular season in a bid to be as fresh as possible for the playoffs.

The “load management” debate has followed Leonard throughout his career, including last year when he was slammed by frustrated fans.

Fans were quick to forget Leonard dragging the Clippers back into the series after dropping the first two games, with an average off 33 points and 8.5 rebounds.

Rondo got a lot of nerve talking to Kawhi like what after he went 0-6 from the field. 🤷🏼‍♂️🐸☕️ https://t.co/79Cp2bYwIy

— Paul B. Livengood II (@IamLivengood) June 3, 2021

Kawhi, air balled a gm tying 3 and looked like he blamed Rondo for the pass. Rondo, looked like, WTF are talking about, you just air balled a shot. That’s not my fault.

— shannon sharpe (@ShannonSharpe) June 3, 2021

Kawhi took off 20 games in the regular season (without being injured) to deliver these AMAZING playoff games!

20 points
5 rebounds
5 assists

And a good ol airball to try and tie the game

— XSET Joke (@Jokeeee_) June 3, 2021

Damn I was vouching hard saying kawhi was the next best player in the league when lebron retires. Clippers have to scrap the whole team if they lose this series.

— Khalil | bc (@b1ologic) June 3, 2021

Kawhi Leonard is expected to be superhuman whenever he’s on the court.

It wasn’t all Kawhi’s fault though with Nicolas Batum missing a late layup attempt with less than 10 seconds remaining which would have given them a 102-101 lead.

Instead the Mavericks went up 103-100 before Kawhi’s missed shot.

Slovenian prodigy Luka Doncic also erupted for 42 points to help the Mavericks to the win and the fifth straight road victory of the series.

“I played terrible at the end but we got a win and that’s all that matters,” Doncic said, who wants Dallas to replicate their away form in game six in Texas.

“We’ve got to play like we play on the road.”

Tim Hardaway Jr was the only other player to crack double figures for Dallas with 20 points.

Originally published as Kawhi Leonard roasted after airball disaster costs Clippers in NBA playoffs