Leonard, Raptors battling fatigue as Bucks try to bounce back

TORONTO — For Kawhi Leonard and the Raptors, Monday was all about rest and recovery.

Coming off a season in which he sat out 22 regular-season games and never played on back-to-back nights as part of a plan to manage his workload, Leonard played a playoff career-high 52 minutes in Toronto‘s double-overtime victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday.

The Raptors cut their deficit to 2-1 in the Eastern Conference finals, but it may have come at a cost. Leonard battled through both extra sessions while dealing with soreness in his leg. Pascal Siakam also had a long night, playing 51 minutes for Toronto, which will try to even the series in Tuesday’s Game 4.

Leonard didn’t speak to reporters Monday, but Raptors coach Nick Nurse said the star player isn’t injured, just fatigued.

“The consensus today is he’s tired, and he’s got two days and will be ready to go,” Nurse said. “Those are kind of the words coming out of his mouth: little tired, but he’ll get his rest, got two days, and he’ll be ready.”

Leonard played only nine games in 2017-18 because of a quadriceps injury. He was traded from San Antonio to Toronto after that season, and the Raptors made keeping him fresh a priority.

He acknowledged feeling sore after scoring 36 points in Game 3, including eight in the second overtime, but insisted he’d be ready to go on Tuesday.

The Bucks are still expecting Leonard to be at his best.

“He’s going to shoot with one, two, sometimes even three or four guys on him,” Milwaukee’s Khris Middleton said. “I keep saying this over and over: He’s a great player. You can’t stop great players. You can only make it tough on them.”

Leonard isn’t just an offensive force. A two-time Defensive Player of the Year, he helped limit Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo to 12 points on 5-for-16 shooting in Game 3.

Raptors guard Kyle Lowry called Leonard “probably the best two-way basketball player in the NBA.”

Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer was asked Monday whether his team might fare better in Game 4 with Leonard battling fatigue.

“I don’t know that we can go any harder at Kawhi than we are,” Budenholzer said. “We’ve been throwing a lot at Kawhi, and we’ll continue to do that.”

Here are some other things to know before Game 4:

CHART TOPPER

Sunday marked the sixth time in 15 playoff games with Toronto that Leonard has scored 35 or more. That gives Leonard as many 35-point games in the playoffs as former Raptors stars Vince Carter and DeMar DeRozan combined. Carter (15 career playoff games with the Raptors) and DeRozan (51) each had three such games.

UNDER MY THUMB

Lowry is still wearing a compression glove on his left hand, trying to manage the thumb injury he sustained in Game 7 against Philadelphia in the previous round. Lowry said the thumb bothers him when he tries to make steals.

“It’s going to hurt, it’s going to be sore, but you’ve got to push through,” Lowry said.

BENCH PRODUCTION

Budenholzer said he doesn’t plan on moving either Malcolm Brogdon or George Hill into the starting lineup. Hill led the Bucks with 24 points in Game 3, while Brogdon — a starter in the regular season before he was sidelined by a foot injury — had 20.

“We’ll continue to think about it and wrestle with everything but, generally speaking, I think that seems like it’s in a good place,” he said.

ONE IN THE CHAMBER

Danny Green was surprised when Nurse ran a play for him in the first overtime, even though Green had missed all eight attempts so far.

“We put him back in and I said to him, ‘You’ve gotta hit one here for us, man,’” Nurse said.

Green made a 3, his only successful field goal of the game.

“A lot of coaches did a great job of letting me mature as an adult and professional shooter to not let those other shots be in my mind,” Green said. “When I came around the screen, I didn’t think twice. I just thought the next one was going in.”

ON THE SHELF

Toronto F OG Anunoby (appendectomy) and G Patrick McCaw (personal) are out for Game 4.