Yesterday’s battle between the National Basketball Association’s two best end-to-end players turned out as expected, and not just because Kawhi Leonard had the benefit of playing on home court. Jimmy Butler was handicapped from the get-go, as much by skill sets as by the circumstances under which they had to be displayed. Beyond the Raptors’ superiority in talent, the Timberwolves likewise needed to deal with dysfunction that had principal protagonists ultimately working against and not for the common cause.
Based on numbers alone, Leonard trumped Butler pulling away. He had 35 points in 35 minutes in leading the Raptors to their fifth straight victory to start the season; parenthetically, the 23 shots he took to reach his high in black and red underscored his increasing efficiency. For good measure, he added five rebounds, two assists, two blocks, and two steals, including a ridiculous back-to-the-ball swipe that captured his inimitable instincts as a defensive demon. By comparison, his Timberwolves counterpart had a relatively more modest 23 off 13 field goal attempts, four, five, zero, and six in 37 minutes of exposure.
There will be more matches for Leonard and Butler, of course, but yesterday’s encounter simply highlighted the obvious: When free agency rolls around for both next year, the former will be slotted higher on most potential employers’ lists. And, contrary to popular notion, the latter’s recalcitrant stance vis-a-vis Timberwolves management won’t be part of the equation; after all, it was exactly the position of the other with the far more stable Spurs.
In the meantime, though, the impressions count. Which is why Leonard is already being touted as a Most Valuable Player candidate, and why Butler has been portrayed as a chemistry buster with an over inflated sense of self. And while both perspectives figure to revert to the mean at some point in the future, there can be no rewriting the present: The Raptors are thriving, the Timberwolves are not.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994.
