SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The pregame public-address announcement of teams’ inactive players is usually an afterthought inside NBA arenas, with fans still streaming in generally less concerned about the players not in uniform than locating their seats.
But Saturday night boos were faint but audible inside Golden 1 Center at the mention of Los Angeles Clippers star reserves Kawhi Leonard and John Wall sitting out the season’s second game for rest. The team has promised a conservative handling of each’s early-season minutes, and Saturday was the second example of that in as many games, after Leonard played 21 minutes off the bench — his first time as a reserve in nine years — in Thursday’s season-opening win.
Leonard and Wall made the trip, but watched from the sideline, and playing short-handed by the team’s own design will not be an isolated occurrence this season. And on those nights, the question determining success and failure will be who and what does show up for the Clippers.
