SAN ANTONIO (AP) Tony Parker is back for the San Antonio Spurs, and the veteran guard expects teammate Kawhi Leonard to return in ”two or three weeks” from a quadriceps injury that’s kept him out all season.
Leonard has been practicing with Parker and retired San Antonio forwards Tim Duncan and Matt Bonner as part of his rehabilitation from right quadriceps tendinopathy.
”I still think he’s a couple of weeks away,” Parker said of Leonard. ”He was looking good the last two or three practices he practiced with me.”
Parker was set to make his season debut Monday night against the Dallas Mavericks after undergoing surgery to repair a ruptured quadriceps tendon.
Leonard worked out Monday after the team’s morning shootaround, a rare public sighting of him on the court.
The two-time Defensive Player of the Year missed the last three games of last season’s Western Conference Finals against the Golden State Warriors after re-aggravating a sprained left ankle, but said he recovered from the injury shortly after San Antonio’s season ended.
Leonard missed all preseason with a thigh injury that coach Gregg Popovich said was similar to Parker’s.
Leonard’s rehabilitation, though, has been slower and more mysterious. The injury causes tenderness or pain in the tendon.
”It’s still going to be a process,” Parker said Monday. ”The Spurs aren’t going to take no risk. And it’s still going to be, like I said, a couple of weeks, three weeks out. They’re not going to take any risk. But he’s looking good so far. What he did with me, he’s looking good.”
The Spurs have the third best record in the West (12-7) despite being without Leonard and Parker.
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