George, Leonard named to 2024 Western Conference All-Star team
The two Clippers linchpins will spend the All-Star break in a city where they were nearly teammates.
It was learned on Thursday night that Kawhi Leonard and Paul George of the LA Clippers will both be traveling to Indianapolis to partake in All-Star festivities as the pair was selected to the 2024 NBA All-Star Game as Western Conference reserves.
Leonard is averaging 23.9 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 3.7 assists while also supplying 1.7 steals across 42 games. Leonard is shooting a career-best 52.6 percent from the field and 43.9 percent on 3s. It is shaping up to be Leonard’s most efficient season during his illustrious NBA career.
This marks Leonard’s sixth All-Star selection.
George has averaged 23.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 3.5 assists as well as 1.6 steals over 43 games. George missed the team’s game on Wednesday due to a sore left groin but is not on the injury report ahead of Friday’s game.
George is shooting 46.3 percent from the field and 41.2 percent on a staggering 8.3 3-point attempts per game. This will be George’s ninth All-Star berth.
For Leonard and George, they head to a city where they could have been teammates had things worked out a tad differently.
After taking Paul George 10th overall in the 2010 NBA Draft, the Indiana Pacers owned the 15th overall selection in 2011. With it, they selected Kawhi Leonard. However, Leonard was traded on draft night to the San Antonio Spurs for guard George Hill.
While Hill, George, and the Pacers went on to have great success during their time together, one can’t help but wonder what could have been had this duo that’s now in Los Angeles been formed in Indiana.
George will head back to the city where he starred for his first seven seasons in the NBA, making four All-Star teams in the process and guiding the Pacers to multiple Eastern Conference finals berths.
This will be George’s second consecutive All-Star appearance and the third in five years with the Clippers.
Leonard will make his first All-Star appearance since 2021 and, like George, his third overall in five seasons in Los Angeles.
The Clippers have gone 31-15 overall, which is aided by great health from their two stars. To date, George has missed only three of the team’s 46 games while Leonard has missed four.
So far this season, the pair have logged 1,018 minutes. That’s only 10 minutes shy of equaling their most minutes together in a single season which came in 2020-21 when they finished with 1,028 minutes played as a duo. The Clippers have won their 1,018 minutes this season by 335 points.
The early season trade for guard James Harden has also supplied the Clippers with a much-needed boost as the team has gone 23-11 when all three have played. The Clippers have outscored opponents by 200 points in the 747 minutes that Harden, George, and Leonard have been on the floor as a unit.
Kawhi Leonard won the 2020 All-Star Game Most Valuable Player award when he finished with 30 points, seven rebounds, four assists, and two steals in 20 minutes while going 11-for-18 from the field.
Leonard became the third player in Clippers franchise history to win All-Star MVP. Randy Smith won the franchise’s first MVP in 1978 as a member of the Buffalo Braves while Chris Paul won the award in 2013.
Both George and Leonard were selected for the 2021 All-Star Game in Atlanta. George scored 17 points off the bench and Leonard had eight points, nine rebounds, and eight assists as a starter.
They are the first pair of Clippers teammates to be selected in two All-Star games together since Chris Paul and Blake Griffin did it in four straight years (2012-2015). Griffin missed the 2015 affair due to an injury.
The Clippers have a 109-48 (.694) record over the last five seasons when Paul George and Kawhi Leonard both play.