{"id":424676,"date":"2026-01-23T08:54:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T08:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/424676\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T08:54:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T08:54:07","slug":"kawhi-leonard-embraces-3-point-shooting-to-lift-clippers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/424676\/","title":{"rendered":"Kawhi Leonard embraces 3-point shooting to lift Clippers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Kawhi Leonard has built his reputation on defense and a mid-range game featuring a deadly fadeaway jumper. Now, he&#8217;s joining the 3-point club.<\/p>\n<p>While the Los Angeles Clippers were losing 19 of 22 games from November through mid-December, Leonard went to coach Tyronn Lue and said he was going to try shooting 12 3-pointers a game.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow?\u201d Lue asked.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You\u2019re going to see,\u201d Leonard replied.<\/p>\n<p>With his team mired near the bottom in the West, Leonard figured it was time he tried something new.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought that\u2019s what we needed, for me to get more 3s up,\u201d he said. \u201cEncourage guys to shoot the ball even if it doesn\u2019t go in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leonard was 3 of 7 from 3-point range while scoring 24 points in the <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/lakers-clippers-score-91986624e3bbec88907227494726d905\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Clippers&#039; 112-104 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Clippers&#8217; 112-104 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> on Thursday night. He returned after missing the final three games of the team&#8217;s road trip with a bruised left knee.<\/p>\n<p>Leonard is shooting 40% from long-range this season, just off his average the previous few years.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s easy for me because I\u2019m not worried about no outside opinion or my percentage,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s all about me evolving, and I know what it takes to become a better basketball player on that floor and if it doesn\u2019t work out, it doesn\u2019t work out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leonard feels free to let it fly in games, where he can get plenty of repetition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI learned that at a young age and still have it in me,\u201d the 34-year-old two-time NBA Finals MVP said.<\/p>\n<p>Leonard has upped his game as the Clippers have won 14 of 17 games to move up in the West, even while playing under a minutes restriction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShooting more 3s has allowed us to get to that 38-43 per game, which we&#8217;ve been trying to do,\u201d Lue said. \u201cUsually he settles for the mid-range pullup which he&#8217;s great at, but he&#8217;s been getting to the free throw line, getting to the basket has been really good for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP NBA: <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/NBA\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:https:\/\/apnews.com\/NBA;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">https:\/\/apnews.com\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Kawhi Leonard has built his reputation on defense and a mid-range game featuring a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[11653,11952,1055,355,99,26757],"class_list":{"0":"post-424676","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-kawhi-leonard","9":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","10":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tyronn-lue"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}