The impossible task

Maxi Kleber is making Kawhi work for everything... and still getting beat

Kawhi Leonard has become essentially a perfect offensive player.

He is a plus shooter from everywhere on the floor. Per Cleaning the Glass, Kawhi shot 65 percent at the rim (75th percentile among wings), 45 percent in the mid-range (81st percentile), 48 percent on corner threes (81st percentile again), and 37 percent on non-corner threes (64th percentile). He can make any shot off the dribble (47.4 percent off one or more dribbles this season, per NBA.com) or off the catch (45.1 percent off zero dribbles), from pretty much anywhere on the court.

He gets wherever he wants to go on the drive and he either makes the shot or gets fouled damn near every time. (He matched his career highs in free throws per game and per 36 minutes.) He took his passing to new heights this season, averaging a career-best 4.9 dimes per game, assisting on 26.4 percent of his teammates’ baskets while on the floor. And he still takes remarkable care of the ball, turning it over on only 10 percent of his possessions.

He has kept it up in the playoffs, pouring in 99 points in the first three games against the Mavericks while shooting 51.5 percent from the field, making 28 of 30 free-throws, and tossing 16 assists against only eight turnovers. So it feels a bit strange to describe the job Maxi Kleber is doing on him as “nothing short of incredible,” but… that’s actually the truth. Kleber has been amazing. He’s made Kawhi work for absolutely every inch, contested nearly every shot, and avoided fouling when at all possible.

According to Second Spectrum, there have been 17 different occasions where an opponent has defended Kawhi on at least 100 half-court positions in a playoff series. (Since 2013-14, which is when tracking began.) Kleber has held Kawhi to his third-lowest effective field goal percentage (41.4) among that group, behind only Malcolm Brogdon in last year’s Eastern Conference Finals (34.5) and Kevin Durant in the 2013-14 Western Conference Finals (39.7).

The other Mav who has spent a bunch of time on Kawhi in this series is Dorian Finney-Smith, and he’s gotten torched: Kawhi has 30 points on 66 half-court matchups with DFS, compared with 44 on 115 matchups with Kleber. His eFG% against DFS is 63.2 (!!!), which dwarfs the figure he has posted against Kleber as well.

It’s further notable that among the players who have defended Kawhi on at least 100 possessions in a series, Kleber is the only big man tasked with the job: Aaron Gordon, Andre Iguodala, Andre Roberson, Ben Simmons, James Ennis, Durant, Khris Middleton, LeBron James, Malcolm Brogdon, Matt Barnes, Monta Ellis, Nic Batum, Trevor Ariza, Vince Carter, and Wesley Matthews are the other guys to do it. They’re all guards, wings, or combo forwards.

What does this mean? Honestly, probably not much! It’s still a small sample. The Mavs are almost certainly going to win the series — especially now that Luka is injured. But Kleber deserves some props.