{"id":951981,"date":"2026-11-04T06:26:17","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T06:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/951981\/"},"modified":"2026-11-04T06:26:17","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T06:26:17","slug":"raptors-say-leonard-has-started-return-to-play-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/951981\/","title":{"rendered":"Raptors say Leonard has started &#8216;return to play&#8217; process"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2417647\" class=\"wp-image-2417647\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Kawhi-Leonard-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-2417647\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kawhi Leonard, who hasn\u2019t played due to a swollen knee, has started the \u2018return to play\u2019 process, the Toronto Raptors say.<\/p>\n<p>TORONTO (AP) \u2014 Kawhi Leonard is getting closer to rejoining the Toronto Raptors\u2019 lineup.<\/p>\n<p>The Raptors announced Tuesday that Leonard \u201chas successfully completed treatment to address left knee swelling,\u201d the first step in the process to get him back on the court again.<\/p>\n<p>Leonard played in Toronto\u2019s first two games of the season, averaging 19.5 points and 7.5 rebounds. The Raptors have been without him since, going 2-3 in five contests.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019ll miss at least three more games while going through what the team called \u201cthe return to play\u201d process in Toronto. Leonard\u2019s progress will be updated in a week, Raptors said, meaning the earliest he could play again would be Nov. 11 against Boston.<\/p>\n<p>Leonard is a two-time NBA Finals MVP, including when he led the Raptors to their lone title in 2019. After getting traded back to Toronto this summer, he agreed to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/news\/kawhi-leonard-signs-multi-year-extension-raptors\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">$115 million extension <\/a>that, at his option, would run through the 2028-29 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kawhi Leonard, who hasn\u2019t played due to a swollen knee, has started the \u2018return to play\u2019 process, the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":951982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85,518775],"class_list":["post-951981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-toronto-raptors-kawhi-leonard-knee-recovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=951981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/951982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}