Kawhi Leonard, LA Clippers
Last season, Hollywood prepared a script that had the two LA teams, the Los Angeles Lakers and the LA Clippers meeting in the Western Conference Finals, but unfortunately, Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers decided to adlib and lose in the Conference Semifinals to the Denver Nuggets after leading 3-1 (In game 7 of the series Leonard played terrible, shooting 6-22, a putrid 27% from the field).
Kawhi’s past accomplishments, winning the championship in San Antonio and Toronto, coupled with the fact that he joined a deep, talented, playoff-ready team that added himself and Paul George, had him favored to captured last year’s title.
There was one variable that was not present during his previous successes and was not accounted for by everyone predicting Kawhi would hoist the trophy again, and that was expectations.
Expectations defeated Leonard in 2020, can he even the score in 2021?