Why the LA Clippers are suddenly the hottest team in the NBA

LA Clippers assistant coach Brian Shaw doesn't like comparing anyone to Kobe Bryant. But he is one of just a handful of people who both played with and coached Bryant, so he's reluctantly an authority on the matter.

And he's willing to admit that he sees shades of Bryant in the recent play of one particular NBA superstar, who since Dec. 20 has quietly led the league in scoring and steals, as the Clippers have resurrected their season from disaster.

That would be franchise cornerstone Kawhi Leonard. "If I was to make any comparison in terms of what I witnessed with Kobe," Shaw told ESPN, "it's the work ethic once either one of those two sets their mind to something."

There are dozens of stories Shaw could tell to make his point, but the one that comes to his mind was from early in Bryant's career when Shaw was one of the veterans at the end of the Lakers' bench. It was Jan. 7, 2003, and the Los Angeles Lakers were in Seattle to face Gary Payton and the Sonics.

"We were at shootaround," Shaw said. "And one of the reporters from Seattle says to him, 'Yeah, my daughter really loves your game, but she says if there's one thing missing, you don't have a 3-point shot." Bryant turned to the reporter. He told him to make sure his daughter tuned in to the game that night. "Then," Shaw said, "Kobe stayed there and just shot 3 after 3 after 3, from every spot on the floor." That night, Bryant hit a then-NBA record dozen 3-pointers, motivated to, as Shaw said, "do something that someone said he couldn't do."

Which brings us back to Leonard. While the goad isn't exactly the same as Bryant's two decades ago, the skill is -- and the results are, too. The Lakers won that night by 21. And the Clippers, despite their 6-21 start, are the hottest team in basketball.

Leonard -- and his massive uptick in perimeter shooting -- is the reason.

FOR NEARLY TWO years, the Clippers' coaching staff had pleaded with Leonard to expand his range. They knew his comfort level in the midrange, and how much he enjoyed dominating inside, but they also knew their offense would explode if he moved outside. They also knew how much care he put into his body and wanted to protect him from the constant contact he endured in the paint.

Assistant coach Jeremy Castleberry has been working with Leonard since his days in San Antonio. Coach Tyronn Lue affectionately calls him the "Kawhi whisperer" because he knows how to get through to Leonard.

Finally, in December, as the two men talked about the evolution of Leonard's game as he approached his mid-30s, and the unmitigated mess the Clippers' offense had become, Leonard took the charge.

"I told TLue that I'm going to shoot 12 3s and he was like, 'How?' and I said, 'You're going to see,'" Leonard said.

Then, like Bryant in that Seattle game all those years ago, he went out and did exactly what he said he would do.

Leonard is averaging a career-high seven 3-point attempts this season, but nearly nine since Dec. 20 when he took 12 3-pointers in the Clippers' 103-88 win over the Lakers.

In Leonard's retelling, he finally relented to Lue and Castleberry's nudging because the team was in such dire straits that it was worth just trying something new.

"We were in a hole," Leonard said. "So I just tried to see what we needed and I thought that's what we needed. If I shoot more 3s and I keep shooting even if I struggle and the ball doesn't go in, it'll encourage guys to shoot the ball even if it doesn't go in." Once Leonard committed to shooting more from the outside, it unlocked the Clippers' attack. Before Dec. 20, the team ranked 23rd in offense.

Since then, Leonard has hit more than 43% of his 3-point attempts, which has pulled defenders outside and opened up space for him and other teammates to drive or cut. The Clippers rank second in offense and score nearly eight more points per 100 possessions. They are 16-3 in their past 19 games.

And it's easier on his body, too. Leonard's career has been defined by tantalizingly elite play and devastating injuries. "Ty has been on him since I've been here about just trying to get him easier shots where he doesn't have to grind for it every single time," Shaw said.

"He already had the work ethic and the methodology of how he goes about things. And now Kawhi has embraced getting up more 3-point attempts and has worked at it day after day with Jeremy. He's been just really, really focused." When Leonard is healthy and playing like this, expectations rise for what he and the Clippers could accomplish. It's why the bet they made on him in 2019 has, so far, been such a crushing loss -- because, at some point every year, Leonard has stretches of relative health and brilliance.

Since his arrival in 2019, the Clippers have won more than 66% of their games when Leonard has been on the floor. In games he has missed, they've won just 49%. "This is my fifth season here," Shaw said. "Once I saw how good he really was, I felt like each year we would have had a chance to get to the promised land, had not just him, but our team been healthy all the way through." That is the eternal conundrum with Leonard, and it is fundamentally unsolvable. When he's healthy, he's still one of the most impactful players of this generation. When he's not, the Clippers' fortunes are explicitly tied to something they can neither control nor fully understand.

JAMES HARDEN SITS next to Leonard in the Clippers' locker room. Recently he has begun to believe that he might be the closest teammate Leonard has ever had. Which is not to say that they are especially close. Neither man has even been to the other's house in Los Angeles.

"I'm still trying to crack the code," Harden told ESPN.

But in terms of shared experiences and understanding, Harden thinks he probably gets Leonard as well as anyone else. "Sharing lockers next to him, I think I get the most out of him," Harden said. "Honestly, I don't even know, I might have gotten the most out of him since he's been in the league."

Lue credits both Harden and Leonard for helping the Clippers climb out of their early-season hole. According to ESPN Research, out of 146 two-man combinations that have played at least 700 minutes together, Harden and Leonard's offensive rating ranks eighth, and it's fourth best among any duo not on the Nuggets.

From what Harden has gleaned, Leonard's entire world revolves around optimizing every bit of the energy he devotes to basketball, so that whatever his body has left can be deployed when the Clippers are playing meaningful playoff basketball.

He eschews sugary drinks and eats well. Last year during the playoffs, he famously removed a few bottles of Gatorade that had been left on the lectern for him at a postgame news conference.

"Kids don't need to be drinking that," he said.

In October, he invited a group of 30 local high school students to the Intuit Dome for a guided mindfulness event, featuring gentle yoga and a sound bath. "If you practice this every day," Leonard told the high school kids as he demonstrated a reverse warrior yoga pose, "those aches and pains will go away."

It's a simple sentiment, but one Leonard really seems to believe -- or at least hope -- is true for him one day.

"Most people wouldn't have the mental capacity to keep coming back [from injury] the way he has, they'd have just given up," Harden said. "But he keeps at it."

As he outlines his admiration for his teammate, Harden looks over at Leonard's locker. Sitting on the top shelf are six fancy bottles of water. Upon closer inspection, the glass bottles are from a brand called Hallstein, a premium alkaline water from the Austrian Alps. A six-pack retails for $71.

"That's the best water on Earth," Leonard told ESPN. "It's naturally alkaline. They don't do anything to make it alkaline. And it's in glass bottles so there's no plastics or bad stuff in it."

Leonard's preference for alkaline water dates back to his San Antonio days. He's especially partial to hot alkaline water with lime juice.

"With him I learn something new every day," Harden said. "I don't even know if he tries to be [mysterious] on purpose. I just think that's what he is. Some people are just off the grid and don't want people to know them on purpose."

If there's one constant in a career full of interruptions, it's this: Teammates and those around Kawhi have never questioned his worth ethic -- or his desire to do anything to return to the game, from meditation and yoga to wildly expensive artesian alkaline water. "He really loves basketball," Harden said. "And he works his ass off so he can keep playing."

So far, he has. Since that Dec. 20 game, Leonard is No. 1 in net rating among players who have played 500 or more minutes.

The question, as it always is with Leonard and the Clippers, is whether it all can last.