The 10 Best NBA Players That Kawhi Leonard Beat In The NBA Finals

Throughout the 2010s, there weren’t many two-way players at the top of their game like Kawhi Leonard was. He won two Defensive Player of the Year awards in 2015 and 2016, plus 2 Finals MVP awards that we are going to discuss today. Leonard was easily a Top 5 most impactful player during the decade despite the injury woes he is currently going through in 2022-23. Defensively, he was the best perimeter defender in the game, taking on a team’s best offensive players in the biggest moments on the biggest stages. Offensively, he developed his game to become an elite, all-around weapon.

During his run to the top with both the San Antonio Spurs and Toronto Raptors, Kawhi faced off against a few of the greatest teams in history in order to get there. Leonard won a championship and a Finals MVP award in both 2014 with the Spurs and in 2019 with the Raptors. Today, we will discuss the players that made up both the 2014 Heat and 2019 Warriors that Leonard and his teams were able to conquer to win those championships. We will discuss how each player performed in those finals and the context around their performances in those series.

Here are the 10 best NBA players that Kawhi Leonard defeated in the NBA Finals.

10. Rashard Lewis

During the 2000s, Rashard Lewis was one of the best small forwards in basketball, earning two All-Star selections and adapting to a changing league at the time. Lewis would become a 20.0 PPG scorer and a valuable member of the 2009 Orlando Magic team that went to the NBA Finals. Lewis spent the first 13 seasons of his career with the SuperSonics and Magic, and by the time he joined the Miami Heat in 2012-13, he was already at the tail end of his career.

Lewis was still a valuable piece off the bench for Miami in 2014. He was much more of an outside shooting threat than anything else, as his athleticism and body had betrayed him at this point. In the 2014 NBA Finals, when Miami was defeated in 5 games by Leonard’s Spurs, Lewis averaged 8.6 PPG and shot 45.5% from beyond the arc. He and Ray Allen attempted 22 threes that series, which was second on the team to LeBron James. Even though he wasn’t the Lewis of old, he still had one last solid performance before retiring at the season’s end.

9. DeMarcus Cousins

At one point during the 2010s, DeMarcus Cousins was one of the best big men in basketball. Cousins earned 3 straight All-Star appearances from 2015 through 2017 with the Kings and Pelicans while becoming one of the best all-around bigs in basketball. By 2017, he was a 27.0 PPG scorer and headed toward superstardom. Then came the injuries to his Achilles and ACL that would severely derail his career. He tore his Achilles while playing for New Orleans in 2018, which caused him to miss 357 days.

He signed with the Warriors in 2019 and appeared in 30 games during the regular season, in which he averaged 16.3 PPG and 8.2 RPG. Cousins then tore his quadricep in the first round of the playoffs against the Clippers but made his way back to the court for the NBA Finals. Despite the major injury, Cousins was still able to be productive with 8.3 PPG and 4.7 RPG in 18 minutes played per game. Had he never been hurt, Cousins could have been one of the best to ever play and been much higher on this list, perhaps.

8. Ray Allen

Before a man named Stephen Curry came along, Ray Allen could be considered the greatest shooter in NBA history. In his younger days with the Bucks and SuperSonics, Allen was much more than that as an all-around perennial All-Star. Allen shot 40.0% for his career from the 3-point range on a much higher volume than was the norm at the time. He went on to become a 10-time All-Star and an NBA champion with the Boston Celtics in 2008.

Allen was 37 years old when he joined the Heat and at the end of his illustrious NBA career. Oddly enough, Allen hit one of the most historic 3-pointers in NBA Finals history in 2013 with the Heat to help them come back and win the NBA championship that season. The 2014 Finals run would be the final year of Allen’s career. In the NBA Finals against Leonard’s Spurs, Allen played 31 minutes a night for Miami and averaged 9.8 PPG for the series. He was also a factor on the defensive end with 1.6 SPG. The attempt fell short of a 3rd NBA title for Allen, but he rode off into the sunset as one of the best of his generation.

7. Kevin Durant

I know what you are thinking. Kevin Durant has a case for being one of the best players on this list, how can he be so low? I would like to remind you that this is based on how they performed in the NBA Finals, in which Kawhi Leonard was victorious over Durant’s team. Durant’s Finals MVPs, MVP, and scoring titles hold little to no weight in this argument, and if he wasn’t Kevin Durant, he might not even be on this list. Take a walk down memory lane to confirm what I am saying.

Kevin Durant and the Golden State Warriors were coming off back-to-back NBA championships, while Kawhi Leonard was taking the Raptors on a historic Finals run. Durant missed over a month of action in the NBA playoffs leading up to the Finals with a calf strain injury. Whether by his own hand or the team, Durant forced his way back for Game 5 of the NBA Finals with the Warriors trailing 3 games to 1. Durant would play all of 12 minutes of Game 5 before going down with a ruptured Achilles tendon. In those 12 minutes, Durant scored 11 points for the Warriors. Leonard would lead the Raptors to victory in 6 games as the Warriors’ dynasty run had come to an end.

6. Andre Iguodala

Andre Iguodala has an impressive NBA resume, no matter how much fans try to discredit his performance over the years. Iguodala is a former two-way forward whose defense led to many wins and an All-Star selection during his career. With the Philadelphia 76ers early on, Iguodala was also an athletic, high-level scorer who became the face of the franchise for a short period of time. He would join the Golden State Warriors in 2014, where his career would come full circle.

Iguodala would win the Finals MVP in 2015 with the Warriors after a victory over LeBron James and the Cavs. When 2019 came along, Iguodala was already a 3-time NBA champion with Golden State. In the 2019 Finals, Iguodala was afforded a large opportunity for minutes and played over 31 minutes per night. Iguodala stepped up and averaged 9.2 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 4.0 APG, and 1.0 SPG. His efforts would not be enough as Leonard, and the Raptors took home the title in 6 games.

5. Chris Bosh

Chris Bosh is a pioneer of the stretch forward evolution in the NBA and ranks among the best power forwards to ever play the game. As a member of the Toronto Raptors in the late 2000s, Bosh became an All-Star and All-NBA player with over 20.0 PPG and 10.0 RPG a night. He was steadily a Top 10 player in the NBA and one of the most sought-after free agents of the 2010 offseason. Bosh would ultimately team up with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade in Miami, where they would go on to win 2 championships and make 4 Finals appearances.

Bosh’s 4th and final appearance in the NBA Finals came in 2014 against the team they had beaten the year before, the San Antonio Spurs. Bosh didn’t struggle, but he didn’t shoot enough, as he averaged 14.0 PPG and 5.2 RPG for the series. He was hitting on 38.5% of his threes and 54.5% of his shots overall, yet he only shot the ball 10.0 times per game. With Bosh unable to get shots off and Leonard’s defense on LeBron, the Spurs wiped the floor with the Heat in 5 games for the NBA championship.

4. Dwyane Wade

Once again, I need to remind everyone that I believe that Dwyane Wade is the 3rd best shooting guard of all time and one of the Top 25 players to ever play in the NBA. That being said, he is only ranked 4th here due to his tremendous drop-off in the 2014 NBA Finals. Tremendous may be a bit too harsh, but he was far removed from the earlier versions of Dwyane Wade that earned him the title of Miami’s best player in franchise history. Wade had been an MVP candidate and Finals MVP on his own before James and Bosh and even with them in recent seasons.

By the time that the NBA Finals came in 2014, Wade had clearly begun to succumb to Father Time and the knee issues that came along as well. Wade was still playing over 34.0 minutes a night in the Finals but clearly without the same explosion and same energy he had once played with. In the 5 games of the 2014 Finals, Wade averaged 15.2 PPG and 1.6 SPG on just 43.8% shooting overall. Wade would bounce back as the No. 12 option for 2 more seasons in Miami before the decline of his career began to take hold.

3. Klay Thompson

I know it seems unimaginable that Klay Thompson is here, considering who sits below him on this list and his injury in the 2019 Finals. However, when we add the context and speak on the production Thompson had in those first 5 games, it will completely make sense. Alongside Stephen Curry, Thompson himself began to climb the ranks as far as 3-point shooters go in NBA history during the 2010s and played a crucial role in 3 NBA championship runs. With huge clutch performances and playoff outbursts, Thompson solidified his name among the great Warriors players ever.

The 2019 NBA playoffs and Finals started off the same way for Klay. During the first 5 games of the Finals, Thompson was averaging a whopping 26.0 PPG on 54.1% shooting overall and 58.5% from three on 41 attempts. As he was going through yet another scoring run in Game 5, Klay was undercut attempting a layup and came down awkwardly on his knee. Although he tried to play through it, Thompson had torn his ACL and was ruled out for the rest of the series. This began a 2-year absence for Thompson as he re-injured himself later on in his recovery. Thompson came back and won a 4th title in 2022 with Golden State anyways, but the 2019 Finals could have been Klay’s shining moment had he stayed healthy.

2. Stephen Curry

Stephen Curry comes in second on this list only because the version of the player at No. 11 exists. In the 2010s, Curry went on one of the best runs in NBA history as a 2-time MVP and 3-time NBA champion. He was named the only unanimous MVP in history as he led the Warriors to a 73-9 overall record in 2016. He led the Warriors to 5 straight Finals appearances from 2015 through 2019 and shot the ball at historic volume on historic efficiency.

When the 2019 NBA Finals came around, all the pressure had landed on the shoulders of Stephen Curry. It was time to prove that the team could still win without Kevin Durant as he recovered from an injury, and Curry was looked to as the guy who could do it. He put up a valiant fight against Toronto and Leonard as he averaged 30.5 PPG on 34.3% shooting from deep. It was an awful shooting series for Curry as he shot just 41.4% overall and did his best after Durant and Klay were ruled out. Leonard would average 28.5 PPG, 9.8 RPG, and 2.0 SPG to capture the Raptors’ first NBA title and his second Finals MVP award.

1. LeBron James

When Kawhi Leonard and LeBron James met for the 2nd consecutive season in the NBA Finals, it was thought that James was headed for rarified air in NBA history and a 3-peat for the Heat as NBA champions. After all, James was coming off back-to-back seasons in which he won the MVP and Finals MVP in 2012 and 2013. He was truly at the peak of his powers on the court on both sides of the ball as the premier scorer, passer, and defender in the NBA at the time.

Leonard would have other plans as his stifling defense in big moments led to crucial turnovers and critical possessions for the Spurs in the 5-game rout of the Heat. James was still able to muster 28.2 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 4.0 APG, and 2.0 SPG in the series, but it was not enough to overcome Leonard and the Spurs. Kawhi would claim his first NBA title and Finals MVP award by averaging 17.8 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 1.6 SPG, and 1.2 BPG. From this point on, Leonard arrived in the NBA and began the path to becoming the legend we know him as today. 

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