Leonard says returning to the court is the easy part after making season debut for Clippers [Video]

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – After what Kawhi Leonard has gone through the past nine months, returning to the court for the Los Angeles Clippers was the easy part.

Leonard played 19 minutes and scored 12 points in his season debut Saturday night to help the Clippers beat the Atlanta Hawks 131-105.

The six-time All-Star forward missed the Clippers’ first 34 games with what the team described as right knee injury recovery. It was his first NBA game action since Game 3 of the Clippers’ Western Conference first-round playoff series against Dallas on April 26.

“We did the right steps to get me to this point,” Leonard said. “Playing basketball was the easy part of it. This is what I love to do. The hard part is not playing and having the rehab and not competing with my teammates.

Leonard was in the starting lineup and got a giant round of applause from the crowd at the Intuit Dome when …