Spurs star Kawhi Leonard has partial tear in left shoulder
Kawhi Leonard
Kawhi Leonard  suffered a sprained ankle in last year’s playoffs. (Jerome Miron/USA Today Sports)
 Kawhi Leonard  had barely started to play significant minutes again before being struck with another injury. The Spurs are hoping  though  that this one does not keep  him  off the court nearly as long as  his  previous issue.
San Antonio Coach Gregg Popovich offered some surprising news Sunday when he told reporters that  Leonard  had a partial tear in his left shoulder. The two-time NBA defensive player of the year was known to have a shoulder injury but not necessarily one of that potential severity.
“It’s too bad. He was starting to get back into form a little bit after playing a couple of games ” Popovich said of  Leonard .
Nevertheless  Popovich added that he hoped  Leonard  could return before the end of the Spurs’ three-game road trip  which began Sunday in Portland.  Leonard  was ruled out of that game  but the coach did dismiss the possibility of a return by his team’s most important player by the time San Antonio visits the Lakers on Thursday.
 Leonard  sat out the first 27 games of the season with a quadriceps injury that appeared to linger much longer than most expected. That came after  he  missed most of the Spurs’ loss to the Warriors in the 2017 Western Conference finals because of a sprained ankle.
 Leonard  has only played in eight games this season  having returned on Dec. 12 but having been held out of four of the Spurs’ past 10 games  as the team has tried to manage  his  recovery. The two-time all-star has only played more than 25 minutes in each of  his  past four games  and for the season  he  is averaging 15.9 points  4.3 rebounds  2.1 assists and 1.8 steals.
However   Popovich  has managed to guide San Antonio to a 27-13 record  good for third place in the West  heading into Sunday’s contest. Their record is all the more impressive because  in addition to Leonard  players such as Rudy Gay (heel)  Danny Green (groin)  Kyle Anderson (MCL)  Tony Parker (quadriceps) and Joffrey Lauvergne (ankle) have been missing time with their own injuries.
"[TGT]suffered a sprained ankle in last year’s playoffs. 
[TGT] had barely started to play significant minutes again before being struck with another injury. The Spurs are hoping  though  that this one does not keep  [TGT]  off the court nearly as long as  [TGT]  previous issue.
San Antonio Coach Gregg Popovich offered some surprising news Sunday when he told reporters that  [TGT]had a partial tear in [TGT] left shoulder. The two-time NBA defensive player of the year was known to have a shoulder injury but not necessarily one of that potential severity.
“It’s too bad. He was starting to get back into form a little bit after playing a couple of games ” Popovich said of [TGT] .
Nevertheless  Popovich added that he hoped  [TGT]could return before the end of the Spurs’ three-game road trip  which began Sunday in Portland.  [TGT]was ruled out of that game  but the coach did dismiss the possibility of a return by [TGT] team’s most important player by the time San Antonio visits the Lakers on Thursday.
 [TGT]sat out the first 27 games of the season with a quadriceps injury that appeared to linger much longer than most expected. That came after  [TGT]  missed most of the Spurs’ loss to the Warriors in the 2017 Western Conference finals because of a sprained ankle.
 [TGT]has only played in eight games this season  having returned on Dec. 12 but having been held out of four of the Spurs’ past 10 games  as the team has tried to manage  [TGT]  recovery. The two-time all-star has only played more than 25 minutes in each of  his  past four games  and for the season  he  is averaging 15.9 points  4.3 rebounds  2.1 assists and 1.8 steals.
However   Popovich  has managed to guide San Antonio to a 27-13 record  good for third place in the West  heading into Sunday’s contest. Their record is all the more impressive because  in addition to [TGT]players such as Rudy Gay (heel)  Danny Green (groin)  Kyle Anderson (MCL)  Tony Parker (quadriceps) and Joffrey Lauvergne (ankle) have been missing time with their own injuries."