Clippers' Leonard has 12 in debut, calls playing 'easy part' - ESPN

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — After 253 days between games, Kawhi Leonard returned to action Saturday — and that, he said afterward, was the easy part.

"[There] was nothing hard about playing tonight," the LA Clippers star said after making his long-awaited season debut in his team's 131-105 win over the Atlanta Hawks at the Intuit Dome.

«We did the right steps to get me to this point, and playing basketball was the easy part of it. This is what I love to do. The hard part is not playing and having to rehab and not competing with my teammates.»

Leonard scored 12 points in 19 minutes against Atlanta in what marked his first game since Game 3 of the Clippers' first-round series against the Dallas Mavericks in April.

Since then, Leonard, 33, has been battling inflammation in his surgically repaired right knee, keeping him sidelined for training camp, preseason and his team's 34 previous regular-season games.

Making his first appearance at the team's new $2 billion arena, Leonard was greeted with a strong ovation from fans in the starting lineup announcements, and he made his first shot — a 3-pointer — on the left wing with 9:57 remaining in the opening quarter.

His overall game was quiet. He finished 4-of-11 from the floor, including 3-of-5 from beyond the arc, while adding three assists, a rebound and a steal.

«I took the shots that I got,» Leonard said. «We're still easing me into the game. We're on nobody's, I guess, timetable. Anybody watching that wants me to score 20, 30 points or be aggressive, we are not on no one's time frame. We know what's ahead of us, and we have to keep building in the right direction. So, we're facing it like it was a preseason game tonight, and we'll keep moving the same way until I'm able to build up