The Raptors pulled back to clinch a come-from-behind victory against the Phoenix Suns last night, to bring their record to a shiny 8-1. But not everything went according to plan: their talisman Kawhi Leonard was forced to exit the game after "jamming his foot" late in the contest, coach Nick Nurse has confirmed. Fingers crossed, but it doesn't look like an overly serious knock.
Kawhi will be re-evaluated this afternoon to assess the severity of the "foot jam." At which point, we should know whether the injury will amount to a determinable recovery period. Kawhi left the game with a team-high 19 points, to go along with 6 rebounds and 5 assists in 30 minutes of action. Overall, he's been averaging 27.3 points per game on the season.
Friday's contest was the first time the Raptors wavered from their cautious approach of resting Leonard on road games. The Raptors' forward has also been systemically ruled out of back-to-back encounters, depending solely on which of the more games is more demanding of his presence.
With the win, Toronto notches the winningest start in franchise history, in the span of 9 or 10 games. The Raptors rotation did the bulk of their damage against the Suns' in a fervent 14-2 run in the 4th quarter.
Kawhi may or may not be part of the team's plans going into Sunday's contest against LeBron & the Lakers. We'll keep you posted.