Only Kawhi Leonard Can Save the San Antonio Spurs Now

It wasn't long ago that Dion Waiters spoke about the Oklahoma City Thunder's willingness to face off against a one-man version of the San Antonio Spurs.

"One man can't beat you," the backup shooting guard said after LaMarcus Aldridge posted 41 points in Game 2's narrow loss to the Thunder, per ESPN.com's Royce Young. "So we're fine with that. If they want to continue to get out of their offense and throw the ball down there to him [Aldridge], we're fine with that. One guy can't beat us, no matter how much he scores."

Waiters is correct. One player alone won't help the Spurs dig out of their 3-2 series deficit and advance to the Western Conference Finals, especially if that lone wolf is Aldridge.

However, if the Spurs want to salvage their historically excellent season, they need to turn to their singular superstar, Kawhi Leonard.

Remember Kawhi

Throughout the 2015-16 campaign, Leonard has left little doubt he's the best player on the San Antonio roster.

En route to winning Defensive Player of the Year for the second consecutive season, he also asserted himself as an unstoppable offensive force capable of leading the team in scoring—another reason he trailed only Stephen Curry in the MVP voting. When the 82-game calendar drew to a close, he'd averaged 21.2 points while shooting 50.6 percent from the field, 44.3 percent from beyond the arc and 87.4 percent from the free-throw stripe.

Per NBA Math's offensive points added (the offensive portion of TPA), he contributed more on the scoring end than everyone else on the Spurs combined. (Leonard alone added 255.81 points more than a perfectly average player might have, while the Spurs' seven other positive contributors totaled just 202.39.)

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Whenever San Antonio has needed points, he's been able to come through. But in the playoffs, the team has veered away from that strategy during late-game situations, choosing instead to let LaMarcus Aldridge work in isolation or Tony Parker handle the ball in a pick-and-roll set.

Stop Forgetting

The Spurs have abandoned the offensive orchestra that traditionally defines this franchise, opting to stop the ball and seek out mid-range looks over the beautiful style that was supposed to set them up for the once-inevitable matchup against the 73-win Golden State Warriors.

That, in and of itself, is not a problem. Though it's different, it's not the inherently troubling part.

Leaning on Aldridge and Parker, however, is a mistake while Leonard is still on the roster.

During the Game 4 loss, when San Antonio's offense collapsed and could only record 16 points during the final period, Leonard was jaw-droppingly uninvolved. He took just two shots in the final six minutes—a pair of contested threes in quick succession, necessary because his team trailed by eight points with less than two minutes remaining.

One contest later, he mustered up just four field-goal attempts during the final period:

1. A missed 19-foot jumper (78-78, 6:33 remaining)
2. A made two-point shot (85-80; 4:52 remaining)
3. A made two-point shot (88-82; 4:00 remaining)
4. A missed 26-foot jumper (91-95; 0:02 remaining)

That's unacceptable.

Even if head coach Gregg Popovich must force his team into passing Leonard the rock, the small forward needs to take more shots. He shouldn't go on a four-minute drought as his team stumbles its way to only three points, only letting fly on a last-second desperation heave.

And yet, that's been a consistent trend during the postseason. While the Spurs turned to Leonard more often as the regular-season clock ticked toward triple zeroes, they've failed to follow the same pattern during games that carry even more weight:

Desperate Times Are Here

Deviating from tradition and running isolation sets during clutch situations isn't ideal, but it's apparently what the Thunder defense is forcing the Spurs offense to do. And that would still be palatable if the ball were finding Leonard's oversized hands every once in a while.

Instead, he's become a decoy while Aldridge backs down defenders. The power forward has fared quite well early in contests, but he's posting a 31.5 usage rate in clutch situations and taking 29 percent of the Spurs' field-goal attempts while on the floor, per NBA.com's databases. Despite the hefty responsibilities, the wins aren't coming.

Lest we forget, it's wasn't Aldridge who was the team's best isolation player during the regular season, but Leonard, thanks to a combination of volume and efficiency:

If the Spurs want to rebound and claw their way out of their 3-2 series deficit, they'll have to begin by changing their late-game offense.

Their overall offensive rating of 93 in fourth quarters against the Thunder won't lead to anything but an early postseason exit. Ditto for their trend of diminished impact passing during late-game stages of the current round:

Throughout the regular season, the Spurs were consistently excellent at moving the ball. Only the Warriors and Atlanta Hawks generated more assists per field-goal attempt. In fact, San Antonio improved as games progressed during its first-round series against the Dallas Mavericks, to the point it was putting on a fourth-quarter clinic and posting a mark (0.373) that would've left the NBA-best Dubs' season-long figure (0.331) in the dust.

But that hasn't been the case against OKC.

Everything has been fairly normal through the first 36 minutes, but the team's execution has gone by the wayside as soon as the game enters the final dozen. The Spurs' 0.167 assist-to-attempt ratio in those crucial minutes would trail even the last-place Los Angeles Lakers (0.212) by a gigantic margin—as large as the gap between the Lakers and the No. 19 Charlotte Hornets.

We know the proper style of play is in there. We've seen plays like this against the Thunder:

However, San Antonio doesn't need to go to that extreme. All five players need not touch the ball on every single play.

One player matters most in these situations, and that's Leonard. Not only is he the team's most dangerous scorer and a proven threat in one-on-one situations, but he's also an improved playmaker who can create multiple options for the offense.

Asking Aldridge to create for others is a recipe for disaster—he posted only 11 more assists than turnovers during his first year with the Spurs. But Leonard averaged a career-best 2.6 dimes during the 2015-16 campaign, and his assists and turnovers per 36 minutes both trended in the right direction in fourth quarters:

Get. Him. The. Ball.

Forget about the fact he went 0-of-5 during the fourth quarter of Game 4. Don't worry about his lack of offensive impact down the stretch in Game 5. Disregard Kevin Durant's admittedly stifling defense down the stretch of close games.

Leonard is the key. He's the lone player who can unlock the hidden potential of his team's late-game offense. Their system is set up for him to thrive, and veering away from it hasn't done him—or the Spurs—any favors.

"He's probably the best in the league at shooting the mid-range off the dribble," Durant told reporters in late April as the Thunder were preparing for the second round, per MySanAntonio.com's Nick Moyle.

"Can post up, dribble, shoot the three, catch and shoot. Their team, their system, their continuity and how they move allows him to get free a lot of times and utilize his game. Definitely one of the players that I look at, try to watch."

Generally, you don't want one of the opposition's stars to look good. But for San Antonio, it desperately needs Durant to be proved right.

Adam Fromal covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @fromal09.

Unless otherwise indicated, all stats are from Basketball-Reference.com, NBA.com or NBAMath.com.