Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala May Have Been Born to Stop Kawhi Leonard
By Jerry Trotta
Determining one's purpose in life is arguably the hardest thing in this world to accomplish. When you sit down and think about the endless fields of work one could enter, it really does seem impossible.
When it comes to Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala, however, the answer is staring us right in the face. Forget competing for a world championship, they were put on this Earth to stop the one-man playoff-wrecking crew that has been Kawhi Leonard.
According to this mind-blowing graphic, the two Warriors' wingers are hindering Leonard's once-ridiculously high scoring average like nobody throughout the regular season and postseason. Have a look.
Iggy and Klay suppress Kawhi’s shooting and scoring as well as anyone this season pic.twitter.com/AbRDiso20m
— Kirk Goldsberry (@kirkgoldsberry) June 3, 2019
So, not only is the 35-year-old Iguodala out here draining game-clinching shots in the Finals in his 15th NBA season, he's also deterring this postseason's greatest offensive performer like nobody else in the damn Association.
As for Klay, what more evidence do we need to deem him one of the league's ELITE defenders? He's been there for the better part of three seasons and is there to stay.
To say that he disrupted prolific scorers like Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum in the Western Conference Finals would be a colossal understatement. His work deserves our recognition and has earned him a spot on the 2018-2019 All Defensive Team.
Unsurprisingly and pretty obvious, as the stats show:
— Grant Liffmann (@GrantLiffmann) March 7, 2019
The Warriors are by and far their best on defense when Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala and Draymond Green share the floor.
In the greater scheme of things, however, this should absolutely be deemed a concerning story line for Raptors head coach Nick Nurse. He will have two days to find a fix into the Warriors apparent, but effective game plan of forcing Leonard into isolation sets.