INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — After what Kawhi Leonard has gone through the past nine months, returning to the court for the Los Angeles Clippers was the easy part.
Leonard played 19 minutes and scored 12 points in his season debut Saturday night to help the Clippers beat the Atlanta Hawks 131-105.
The six-time All-Star forward missed the Clippers’ first 34 games with what the team described as right knee injury recovery. It was his first NBA game action since Game 3 of the Clippers’ Western Conference first-round playoff series against Dallas on April 26.
“We did the right steps to get me to this point,” Leonard said. "Playing basketball was the easy part of it. This is what I love to do. The hard part is not playing and having the rehab and not competing with my teammates.
Leonard was in the starting lineup and got a giant round of applause from the crowd at the Intuit Dome when he was introduced. He hit a 3-pointer on his first shot from the left wing with 9:57 remaining in the first quarter to tie it at 5-all.
Leonard was 4 of 11 from the floor, including three 3-pointers, along with three rebounds and one assist.
Both Leonard and coach Tyronn Lue stressed taking it slow as Leonard gets into playing shape.
“I took the shots that I got. Anybody watching that wants me to score 20 or 30 points and be aggressive, we are not on no one's timeframe," Leonard said. "We know what’s ahead of us and we have to keep building in the right direction. We were facing it like a preseason game tonight and we’ll keep moving the same way until I'm able to build up my minutes.”
Lue, who did not say how long Leonard would be on a minutes restriction, thought Leonard's first game back went well and that having him on the floor made things easier for everyone else.
“Just want him to ease into it. Didn’t want to force feed him. I thought our guys did a good job of not just sitting around watching him play and just continue to play the game,” Lue said. "It was good to have him, now we just have to continue to keep building off of it.”
Leonard has missed 290 regular-season games over the last eight years, including all of the 2021-22 season with knee trouble after being injured in the 2021 Western Conference semifinals against Utah.
If Saturday's game was any indication, a full-strength Clippers squad could surprise some people in the Western Conference. LA broke things open in the second quarter and at one point led by 27 points.
“With Kawhi on the floor, he can draw so much attention, double team and things like that. I’m able to finally get some catch-and-shoot 3s, play off rotation, being able to attack the basket, so it’s a lot easier," said guard Norman Powell, who had 20 points.
“And just defensively, where we’ve been playing and our defensive identity this year even before Kawhi came out today, I think it fits him perfectly and makes it hard for teams because we got so many guys that can switch and guard and defend one-on-one and now you got the help side, so I’m really excited. First game, he looked really good, so just continue to build on that.”
The Clippers are 20-15 record and in seventh place in the Western Conference. However, only 2 1/2 games separate the second- to seventh-place teams. After Paul George signed with Philadelphia and Leonard missing the first part of the season, the Clippers weren't expected to be five games over .500 at this point.
Lue stressed though that there is still a lot of the regular season left to play.
“A lot of room for improvement. We can get better,” he said. "Our guys have done a great job. James (Harden), Norm and Zu (Ivica Zubac) have really done a good job at just showing their veteran leadership but also carrying this team. Now we just got to be ready to build off of this. We’ve done a good job at holding it down until Kawhi got back, but now we got to continue to take those next steps to be a great team.”
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Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) shoots over Atlanta Hawks forward De'Andre Hunter during the second half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jayne-Kamin-Oncea)
Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard, center, is defended by Atlanta Hawks center Clint Capela, left, and Hawks forward De'Andre Hunter during the second half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jayne-Kamin-Oncea)
Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard, left, steals the ball from Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young during the first half of an NBA basketball game Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jayne-Kamin-Oncea)
Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard looks on during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Atlanta Hawks, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jayne-Kamin-Oncea)
TOKYO (AP) — A standoff between rival government forces outside the presidential compound in South Korea has been startling even for those used to the country's famously rough and tumble politics.
For weeks, impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol has remained inside and refused to respond to detention and search warrants. Scuffles broke out late last week as dozens of investigators were stopped from entering the compound by hundreds of presidential security guards and a barricade.
The spectacle followed Yoon's astonishing decision last month to impose martial law during a seemingly routine impasse with the opposition, which dominates parliament.
Here's a closer view of recent events as well as South Korea's tempestuous political history, which has seen presidents toppled, arrested, jailed and shamed as millions have taken to the streets in protest.
Police and a government agency dedicated to fighting corruption are debating more forceful measures to detain Yoon. Dozens of investigators from the agency and police failed last week to bring Yoon into custody following a standoff with his security service.
Court warrants have been issued to detain Yoon and to search his residence. The warrants were set to expire on Monday but the anti-corruption agency requested a new warrant aiming to extend the window for Yoon's detention.
Yoon has been refusing to appear for questioning over his short-lived martial law decree on Dec. 3.
He has described his power grab as a necessary act of governance against a liberal opposition that has bogged down his agenda with its legislative majority. He has vowed to “fight to the end” against efforts to oust him.
Martial law lasted only a few hours, but the country’s politics, diplomacy and financial markets have been shaken for weeks. The decree also exposed South Korea’s deeply polarized society.
Yoon’s lawyers on Monday filed complaints with public prosecutors against the anti-corruption agency’s chief prosecutor, Oh Dong-woon, and six other anti-corruption and police officers for orchestrating Friday’s detainment attempt, which they say was illegal.
Yoon's declaration of martial law unleashed a string of political aftershocks.
The anti-corruption agency, which is leading a joint investigation with police and the military, has been weighing charges of rebellion after Yoon declared martial law and dispatched troops to surround parliament. Lawmakers who managed to get past the blockade voted to lift martial law hours later.
Yoon’s presidential powers were suspended after parliament voted to impeach him on Dec. 14, accusing him of rebellion. The Constitutional Court has begun deliberations on whether to formally remove Yoon from office or reinstate him.
About 150 investigators tried to get Yoon on Friday in a tense standoff with the presidential security service that lasted more than five hours.
After getting around a military unit guarding the residence’s grounds, the agency’s investigators and police were able to approach within 200 meters (220 yards) of Yoon’s residential building but were stopped by a barricade of around 10 vehicles and approximately 200 members of the presidential security forces and troops.
In a statement, Park Jong-joon, chief of the presidential security service, hit back against criticism that his organization has become Yoon’s private army, saying it has a legal obligation to protect the incumbent president.
Yoon’s lawyers said they plan to file complaints against about 150 anti-corruption and police investigators who were involved in Friday’s detention attempt.
The why is incredibly tricky.
But a mix of history and geography have something to do with it.
The Koreas have been sandwiched between big powers for millennia, with China, Russia, Japan and the United States all playing parts of a great global game on the peninsula that extends from the east coast of Asia.
South Korea is deeply split, with the divisions reaching into many parts of life, from culture to class to gender to politics.
Much of the deep political divide can be traced to what happened at the end of World War II, when U.S. and Soviet forces met in the middle of the Korean Peninsula and agreed to divide the land into Washington and Moscow-backed spheres of influence. This solidified into independent rival Koreas in 1948 and then exploded into war and permanent division in 1950. After that, South Korea was run by a string of dictators until democracy came in the late 1980s.
Some of the passion evident in South Korean politics can be seen in the turmoil faced by recent presidents, many of whom have been jailed for corruption after leaving office.
A particularly sensational moment came in 2016 when millions protested against conservative President Park Geun-hye, who later became the first democratically elected leader to be forced from office since South Korea turned democratic.
Park, who was pardoned in late 2021 by her liberal rival and successor, had been serving a lengthy prison term for bribery and other crimes.
Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.
Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol stage a rally to oppose his impeachment near the presidential residence in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol stage a rally to oppose his impeachment near the presidential residence in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
