The NBA’s Biggest Enigma Is Back. The Rest of the League Should Be Terrified.

But this wrecking ball of a basketball player has often seemed to be made of glass. Since he joined the Los Angeles Clippers in 2019—after leading both the San Antonio Spurs and Toronto Raptors to NBA championships—Leonard has gotten hurt time and again, as the franchise he was supposed to save has limped to a series of agonizing playoff letdowns.

So here’s a thought that could change the entire landscape of this year’s NBA playoffs, sending rival championship contenders running for the hills even as Clippers fans cross their fingers and knock on every slab of wood they can find.

Kawhi Leonard is back.

Monday night in Denver, in the most thrilling game of the playoffs so far, Leonard announced his return in no uncertain terms, pouring in 39 points against the Nuggets. He made 15 of 19 shots, none more important than a pull-up 21-footer with less than a minute left to cement a 105-102 win that leveled the series.

“If we have a healthy Kawhi,” Los Angeles coach Tyronn Lue said, “we can win any series.”

NBA fans could be forgiven for needing a reminder. Early in his career, Leonard was an immediate postseason legend. In the 2014 Finals, as a member of the Spurs, he tangled with LeBron James and the Miami Heat and came out on top, winning Finals MVP as San Antonio cruised to the title. In 2019, his lone season with the Toronto Raptors, Leonard’s clutch shooting delivered the only championship in franchise history.

And then, just as rapidly as his star rose, Leonard crashed back to earth. After he joined the Clippers as a free agent in the summer of 2019—signing a contract worth $142 million—he began to be plagued by injuries. Leonard, whose exit from San Antonio had been precipitated by a lingering thigh injury, went on to battle seemingly constant ailments in his knee.

Since 2021, the Clippers have played in 30 playoff games—and Leonard has appeared in exactly half of them. An ACL tear ended one postseason run; a tear in his meniscus slammed the door on another. “We’re only here for one reason, we want to win it all,” Clippers owner Steve Ballmer had said when he introduced Leonard at a press conference. But Leonard had enough trouble simply making it onto the court.

So it went largely unnoticed when, late in the regular season this year, Leonard started playing like his old self again. He’d missed the start of the season with more knee troubles, which had also caused him to leave the U.S. Olympic team over the summer. But Lue said that Leonard had followed a painstaking and patient comeback plan in a bid to be healthy—finally—for a playoff run.

Since Feb. 26, Leonard had been scoring 25 points a night on sparkling shooting percentages. Down the stretch, the Clippers suddenly transformed into one of the NBA’s very best teams, winning 18 of their final 21 games.

For anyone who’d forgotten what a fully operational Leonard could do on basketball’s biggest stage, Monday’s masterpiece was a resounding reminder that in many ways, he’s the perfect playoff performer. In the postseason, when the high-scoring pace can slow to a crawl, the ability to manufacture points out of tight spaces—and stop other teams from doing the same—can be the difference between a title run and an early exit.

Against the Nuggets, Leonard used his 6-foot-7, 225 pound frame to batter his way to any spot on the floor he liked. He rose up and tossed in mid-range jump shots—a sturdy throwback option in a high-variance era of 3-pointers. And after one such mid-ranger gave the Clippers a 3-point lead late, Leonard’s defense sealed the victory, as he stole a pass from Denver’s Nikola Jokic and then forced Jokic into a desperation heave at the buzzer.

“I’m just happy that I’m able to move, and I’m coming out of the game feeling well,” Leonard said. 

It sounds like a modest goal. But if Leonard keeps meeting it, it’s one that could change the shape of the entire NBA playoffs.

Write to Robert O’Connell at robert.oconnell@wsj.com