"Even though he was recently yanked out of the starting lineup, Kawhi Leonard knew he would be playing Kevin Durant a lot in Saturday's game.

So it wasn't really a shock when San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich came to Leonard before the game and told him of his assignment.

Leonard has faced a variety of defensive challenges in his rookie season. From Kevin Martin's awkward but effective jump shot to Dirk Nowitzki's pick-and-pop, Monta Ellis's face-up game and even a dose of LeBron James' physicality, he's seen it all.

His game against Durant was one of the best of the season as he stared down the challenge of the two-time defending NBA scoring leader and even flourished. Durant scored 22 points, but needed 19 shots to earn his points in the kind of harrassing challenge that pleased Popovich."