Philippe Coutinho admits his performances for Barcelona this season were not good enough as the Spanish champions look to cash in on their record signing.

Coutinho, 26, made an impressive start to life at Barca when he joined the club from Liverpool in January of 2018 for €160 million but his form dipped dramatically in his second season with the club.

"I didn't have a great season," the Brazilian told reporters in his homeland ahead of this summer's Copa America.

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"It was below what I expect from myself and what the supporters expect from me. But you can only gain confidence through working hard, which is what I have done and what I will continue to do."

Sources told ESPN FC after Barca's humiliating Champions League exit to Liverpool in May that the Catalan club were actively looking to move Coutinho on.

"Coutinho is not a Barcelona player, that's been made clear," a club source told ESPN FC after the 4-0 second leg loss at Anfield. The source also explained that a number of the coaching staff had grown disappointed with the playmaker's performances throughout the season.

There has been interest in Coutinho but nothing concrete and Barca have become worried that they won't be able to bring in the €100m they were hoping to sell him for.

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However, they hope the ex-Liverpool player's value could receive a boost at this summer's Copa America. With Neymar missing with an ankle injury, he has already impressed in friendly matches against Qatar and Honduras.

International teammate Thiago Silva says Coutinho is already benefitting from being away from Barcelona, where he was criticised by supporters for his performances throughout the season.

"Coutinho's had a difficult year at Barcelona," the Paris Saint-Germain defender told reporters. "It was demanding and they jeered him a lot. But here, in this team, he's our reference point -- especially when Neymar isn't available.

"In the two friendly matches we've played, he was the best player on the pitch. Not just because of his assists and his goals, but because of his defensive work. He's happy again."

Brazil kick off the Copa America against Bolivia in Sao Paulo on Saturday. They then face Venezuela and Peru.

REIMS, France -- On the eve of the team's World Cup opener, United States women's national team coach Jill Ellis shrugged off recent criticism from former goalkeeper Hope Solo.

Solo criticized Ellis in an interview and column with the BBC. She said the U.S. coach who was in charge when the team won the World Cup title four years ago, its first world championship since 1999, relies too much on her assistants, is reluctant to criticize players and "cracks under pressure."

"Comments are comments," Ellis said Monday. "I feel over the past five years [I've] made a lot of important decisions. And I have processes to make those decisions and own those processes. And at this point everything and every focus is about this group of players that are here and now. Pundits that are out there, that's part of it. And part of the message is always to make sure that the focus is on the internal part of the game. And that's where we are."

Solo played for Ellis during both the 2015 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. The goalkeeper was suspended for six months by U.S. Soccer following the 2016 Olympics after calling Sweden "a bunch of cowards" following a quarterfinal in which the opponent used a defensive approach to earn a 1-1 draw over 120 minutes and then advance to the semifinals in a penalty shootout.

Now 37, Solo has not played for the national team or professionally since that suspension.

Solo was also famously critical of then-coach Greg Ryan's decision to start Briana Scurry in goal during a 2007 World Cup semifinal after Solo started the team's first four games in that tournament. She was then barred by the team from the third-place game. She returned to the team under coach Pia Sundhage and won gold medals in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.

Ellis' comments came on the heels of players Julie Ertz and Alyssa Naeher, Solo's replacement as the No. 1 goalkeeper, saying during a Sunday press conference in France that they hadn't seen Solo's comments.

The Premier League's big six have made a slow start to the summer transfer window, with only Manchester United adding to their squad since the end of the season with the £15m signing of young Swansea winger Daniel James.

Finding the right player at the right price is now becoming a challenge for even the biggest and wealthiest club. But if money was no object and the leading teams could make one signing to transform their starting XIs, whom should they go for?

With the transfer market likely to accelerate at the end of this month, ESPN FC has identified which player would make a big difference to each of the Premier League's top-six clubs.

MAN CITY: Liverpool left-back Andrew Robertson

Pep Guardiola's Manchester City squad is the strongest and deepest in the Premier League, if not the world, and improving a team which finished last season having won all three domestic trophies will be no easy feat.

But if there is one weakness in Guardiola's team, it is at left-back, where Benjamin Mendy's injury problems since signing from Monaco two years ago have forced the City manager to try all kinds of solutions. Mendy has made just 17 Premier League appearances in that time, with Guardiola having tried Fabian Delph, Aymeric Laporte and Oleksandr Zinchenko in his stead over the past two seasons. Guardiola, though, wants to solve his left-back problem for good this summer to ensure that City are as formidable as possible at the back.

Enter Andrew Robertson. There is no better left-back in world football than the Liverpool defender, both in terms of his defensive discipline and ability to contribute going forward.

The Scotland captain was signed for a bargain £8 million from Hull City in 2017, but Liverpool would now want at least £100m for the 25-year-old if they were to even contemplate letting him go.

The chances of Liverpool selling Robertson to anybody, let alone City, are remote, but if Guardiola could get any player in the world to make his team even better, it would be the former Dundee United defender who has just helped Liverpool to Champions League glory.

LIVERPOOL: Man City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne

Jurgen Klopp, with the help of Liverpool's transfer committee, has transformed his side over the past two seasons, with goalkeeper Alisson and centre-half Virgil van Dijk banishing previous concerns over those two key areas of the team.

Going forward, Liverpool are also formidable with Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino combining to form one of the most devastating attacking trios in the world. But the one area where Liverpool could improve is in midfield, where Klopp's team lacks a box-to-box player in the mould of Steven Gerrard, who can turn defence into attack with either his passing or running with the ball.

In that respect, Kevin De Bruyne would be the perfect signing for the European champions and a player capable of enabling Liverpool to take the next step towards winning the Premier League. De Bruyne is a major figure at Manchester City and the Belgium international is unlikely to be sold anytime soon by the club, but if Klopp could build a profile of the player who would make the biggest difference to his Liverpool team, it would be De Bruyne.

CHELSEA: Real Madrid winger Eden Hazard

If one player was the difference between success and failure for his club last season, and in the years preceding that, it was Eden Hazard at Chelsea.

The Belgian forward was an unqualified success at Stamford Bridge after rejecting offers from Manchester City and Manchester United to complete a £32m move from Lille in 2012. But the completion last week of his transfer to Real Madrid, for an initial £88.5m which could rise to as much as £130m, has left Chelsea without their talisman at a time when the club faces a two-window transfer ban.

U.S. international Christian Pulisic has already been signed from Borussia Dortmund to help fill the void left by Hazard's departure, but if Chelsea could sign any player in the world to ensure they remain competitive at the highest level, it would be the man they just lost, Hazard.

The 28-year-old's departure could hurt Chelsea as much as Cristiano Ronaldo's exit from Manchester United and Thierry Henry's move from Arsenal did, so the ideal scenario would have been for the club to keep him for one more year.

No other player out there, be it Philippe Coutinho or Antoine Griezmann, could be relied upon to make as big a contribution to Chelsea as Hazard did.

TOTTENHAM: Atletico Madrid forward Antoine Griezmann

Tottenham are at crucial stage in their development as a club with ambitions to become a Champions League powerhouse.

Their new stadium is finally open and they have just participated in their first Champions League final. But with doubts over the future of manager Mauricio Pochettino and key players such as Christian Eriksen and Toby Alderweireld, Spurs really need to show they mean business by landing a world-class player.

It is now 18 months since Lucas Moura was signed, the most recent player to do so with the club, but Spurs have the opportunity to make a statement by swooping for Atletico Madrid's Antoine Griezmann. The France international would be an upgrade on Eriksen if the Dane was to leave and would also show the likes of Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Son Heung-min that Spurs intend to challenge the biggest clubs for the top trophies and best players.

Barcelona are still the favourites to sign Griezmann, but the lure of London and the Premier League could turn the 28-year-old's head. On the pitch, Griezmann would be a major plus for Spurs, but off it, his arrival at the club would be a game-changer in how they are perceived.

ARSENAL: Ajax centre-back Matthijs de Ligt

Europe's biggest clubs are all jostling for position in the race to sign Ajax captain Matthijs de Ligt, with Barcelona leading the chase ahead of Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United.

Arsenal appear to be nowhere to be seen in the pursuit of the 19-year-old defender, but a move for De Ligt would send a crucial message to their rivals that they are determined to reclaim their status as one of the Premier League's most powerful clubs.

Unai Emery has made slow progress at the Emirates since replacing Arsene Wenger as manager 12 months ago, but the Spaniard has made attempts to address the team's long-standing defensive frailties.

Going forward, Arsenal remain a match for any team, but their ability to keep the ball out of the net continues to raise question marks over their trophy chances.

In signing De Ligt, Arsenal would be getting a young player with leadership qualities and robust defensive skills. He could provide Arsenal with the defensive rock and captaincy credentials that the club once had with Tony Adams and would also show that the club finally realise that attacking flair alone does not win trophies.

MAN UNITED: Real Madrid centre-back Sergio Ramos

The reality facing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United is that he could improve his team in every position this summer if he had the funds and scouting network behind him to do that. United are in a mess right now, with too many underperforming players and a lack of on-field leaders contributing to them finishing sixth in the Premier League last season.

But while United need an injection of quality in all areas, they also need strong characters to help knit it all together, and no player would make a bigger difference in that respect than Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos.

Defensively, United were shambolic last season, conceding 54 goals in 38 league games, and they desperately need a leader at the back to take charge. Ramos would bring the qualities of a John Terry or Vincent Kompany to United's defence and dressing room and, even at the age of 33, he would vastly improve the back four.

United have seen too many big characters, such as Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney, Nemanja Vidic and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, leave without being replaced in recent years, so a player like Ramos is exactly what they need.

Angelo Mathews has batted 11 balls at this World Cup, and made a grand total of zero runs. Kusal Mendis has faced all of three deliveries, getting out to two of those, and hitting a streaky two past slip off the other. Together, the pair are supposed to comprise Sri Lanka's middle-order engine room, but in both matches so far, they have hastened collapses, and copped criticism in vast volumes. But they are too good not to come right soon, insists batting coach Jon Lewis. Mathews knows how to get himself out of these funks. And young Mendis just needs a bit of love.

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"I think with Angelo, you've got to have faith in the guy who has done as much as he has over such a long period of time, and he tells me that he's in a good place," Lewis said ahead of Sri Lanka's match against Bangladesh. "He's comfortable with his game. You know, at this stage I've got no reason to doubt that the runs will come for him. You can't expect him to go on not producing big runs soon. It's going to come for a player of his quality."

"Kusal could do with a little bit of a confidence boost. For him it's just a case of getting through those first 20 balls, because in the build up to the World Cup, in Scotland, he played very well. The two warm-up games against excellent bowling attacks, he was in good form. He only got 20s and 30s (24 and 37), which was a bit of a downer - it would have been a good opportunity to get a big score. But there was nothing about his form in those two games that suggested that there's anything to worry about. He's had two low scores, and yeah, it will be good if he had some more runs behind him. But he's probably only 20 balls away."

Although a developing Test batsman, having hit 1000 runs in the longest format last year, Mendis, 24 now, hasn't quite cracked ODIs. Late last year he went through a stretch when he made three consecutive one-day ducks, and then a five. A free-flowing player at his best, he has made only one ODI hundred, and averages 27.77 after 63 innings.

"In Tests and T20s, Kusal's numbers at the moment look good, but in 50-over cricket, his numbers aren't where a player of his ability should be, yet," Lewis said. "He's still quite early in his career to be fair to him. I know he's played a lot of games, but they do rack up quite quick. I think his conversion from 20s and 30s into 80s, 90s, hundreds is the big step forward he needs to make. He looked in really, really good touch in the warm-ups, but got 30-odd in both games, so those are the sorts of days when you've got to get a hundred because you know you can't be in good touch every day.

"It would give him a lot of confidence if he can get those big scores. He's only got the one hundred so far in his career, and I think that was against Bangladesh. So maybe that's a good omen, and he'll get a second one tomorrow."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

South Africa 29 for 2 (de Kock 17*, Cottrell 2-18) v West Indies (No result)

South Africa took on West Indies in Southampton, but it was rain that prevailed, with the match being abandoned at 4:15 pm, nearly six hours after rain had first arrived. Only 7.3 overs of play were possible in the South Africa's innings. Both teams picked up a point each.

West Indies had put South Africa in to bat under leaden skies, and - as has been the case in their previous two outings - it didn't take long for West Indies to strike with the new ball. Bowling a bruising length, Sheldon Cottrell got Hashim Amla to glove one to Chris Gayle at first slip in his second over and then strangled Aiden Markram down the leg side - again flicking the glove - in the seventh over.

South Africa were wobbling precariously at 28 for 2, but almost immediately afterwards the heavens opened and the players were forced off from the field. Despite the Hover Cover over the pitch and Super Soppers patrolling the square, conditions never improved enough to allow play to resume.

That means that West Indies are now fifth on the table, with three points from three games, while South Africa finally have a point to their name, having lost three games on the trot heading in to this encounter. It is still theoretically possible for South Africa to resurrect their World Cup campaign, but it would be a miraculous comeback.

They may, perhaps, take some heart from history: Pakistan's cup-winning campaign in 1992 started in similarly disastrous circumstances, with three losses and a no-result in their first five games. If South Africa can win their next match, against Afghanistan in Cardiff on Saturday, they will be in exactly the same position Pakistan were in back in 1992. As they look for this remarkable turnaround, South Africa will at have one of their premier bowlers back, with Faf du Plessis saying that Lungi Ngidi is in contention for their next game against Afghanistan.

West Indies will stay in Southampton for their next match, against the hosts England on Friday. Despite a middling position on the points table they, too, have a couple of injury worries, with Andre Russell having sat this game out with sore knees.

It's been a tournament of mixed emotions for Faf du Plessis, so it was fitting that his relief at finally getting "the horse out of the shed" in registering South Africa's first point in four attempts should be tempered by frustration on a rain-wrecked day in Southampton that denied his side the chance to get into a proper World Cup dogfight.

That said, by the latter stages of a five-hour rain delay, du Plessis - who had yet to get off the mark in the first seven deliveries of his innings - admitted that his team's desire to get back onto the field had been tempered by the fear that a rain-shortened contest would have played into the hands of their opponents.

Having lost two early wickets with only 29 runs on the board in 7.3 overs, the likelihood would have been a favourable DLS adjustment for West Indies, no matter how well South Africa had recovered. And so, in the final analysis, du Plessis was content to take his side's battle for World Cup survival into Saturday's clash with Afghanistan in Cardiff - the first of what he now knows will be five must-win contests.

"The horse is out of the shed, if that's the right wording," said du Plessis. "You know we wanted to play a full game today. I think it's pretty obvious that when you play a team like West Indies, just because of the make-up of their side. So it's disappointing because it's important for us to get some cricket in and start ticking over. But we can't control the weather. So as a team, we'll take the one point and move forward to the next week."

Given the grey skies that dogged Southampton all day, there's clearly no knowing how West Indies' own hard hitters would have fared when faced with an attack led once again by Kagiso Rabada and beefed up by the inclusion of the left-arm seamer, Beuran Hendricks - Dale Steyn's newly acclimatised replacement. However, the available evidence suggested that South Africa actually dodged a bullet - especially after their designated mainstay, Hashim Amla, had been blasted from the crease in Sheldon Cottrell's second over, to take his tournament tally to 25 runs in three visits.

"Hash is a class player," said du Plessis. "You know it's tough on a wicket like that because, when you are opening up the innings, you need a bit of luck to go your way. Like most of our batters, it's just a matter of getting in, and getting those starts converted into runs, because if you can get through the first 10-15 overs, that's when the scores come."

There didn't seem to be much prospect of any batsmen getting themselves in on a tricky deck, however. Aiden Markram fenced a short ball to the keeper to give Cottrell his second breakthrough, and the difficulty of knowing how to pace the rest of their innings was bound to have played on South Africa's minds, given that they were nominally expected to see out a full 50 overs, but were almost certainly going to find themselves defending their target in considerably less.

"Generally when you are chasing, it always favours the team batting second," he said. "We batted seven overs, they are not expecting a shortened game, so the pace that you go at, and losing two wickets, [changes things].

"Even with, around in my mind, when I was looking at 30, 35 overs, I was still feeling like if we get a score of 200, or 200-plus, I do feel there was enough in that wicket with our bowling attack, especially when playing Beuran today as well, an extra seamer."

"But the further the game goes, the closer to a T20 game it becomes, the odds are heavily in their favour. So as it got a bit later in the day, then you'd rather get the point and go."

Floyd Reifer, West Indies' head coach, tempered his own disappointment at the washout, but conceded that his team - irrespective of their defeat against Australia last week - would have fancied their chances of inflicting further damage on their demoralised opponents.

"It was a good opportunity to play against them, like any other team in the competition," Reifer said. "We are playing fearless cricket, so it doesn't matter who we play. When we play them, we want to play the same brand of cricket that we are playing, what we executed in the past couple of games.

"It was a chase that we should have won," he added of the Australia match, when they came up short in pursuit of 289. "We kind of made some mistakes at key points in the game and it happens in cricket, but you learn from it. I'm sure next time most guys will be in that position and will make better decisions."

Either way, South Africa would all too readily swap positions in the group table with West Indies. However, du Plessis insisted it was too soon to start weighing up permutations in the fight for the top four, or to start wishing for certain teams to trip up to make their own requirement more manageable. The only thing that really matters, he said, is chalking up some overdue wins.

"It is too far away," du Plessis said. "Right now, for us, we need to focus on our performance. If we can get our performance sorted out, our skills, our confidence back up where it needs to be, and start getting on a roll of two or three games, you can only really look at those things when it comes to the last week of the tournament.

"Naturally, when you are in a tournament like this, as the team at the bottom part of the log, you want the top team to keep winning to make sure there is a little bit of a breathing room for the other two or three teams, so you keep an eye on other results, maybe, in that aspect. But it's obviously really out of our control."

As if Friday's fixture in Southampton was not tantalising enough, there will be an extra piquancy in England and West Indies' World Cup match-up, given the reunion between Jofra Archer and the team for whom he might already have been a mainstay.

The Barbados-born Archer, 24, has been one of the stars of the tournament to date, having qualified to play for England in April after the ECB chose late last year to reduce its residency period from seven years to three.

And though he is hardly an unknown quantity on account of his exploits in T20 leagues around the world, he's undoubtedly benefited in some of his early outings from a certain surprise factor - not least his ability to bowl in excess of 90mph from an ambling run-up that scarcely requires him to break sweat.

But according to Floyd Reifer, West Indies' head coach and fellow Bajan, there will be nothing about Archer that can take his players by surprise on Friday - and he should know, having played alongside him in club cricket while he was still a West Indies youth prospect.

"To be honest, we knew Jofra for a long time," said Reifer. "He is from Barbados, where we are from. We knew him from the U15s, U17s, U19s so he is not new to us. Yes, he's bowling quickly, but there's nothing that we are not accustomed to. We are looking forward to the challenge. So we will see how it goes on Friday."

In a tournament that has already featured some tantalising match-ups, the expectations around Friday's game have been heightened by the extraordinary feast of attacking batting and fierce quick bowling that lit up the team's 2-2 series draw in the Caribbean earlier this year.

In a see-saw series, England appeared to have struck a decisive blow in posting a hefty 418 for 6 in the fourth match in Grenada, a match in which Jos Buttler cracked a remarkable 150 from 77 balls.

But their thunder was stolen in the series decider in St Kitts, where Chris Gayle set a personal seal on a brilliant campaign with 77 from 27 balls, after Oshane Thomas had bombed England out for 113 with figures of 5 for 21. And with a further trial by pace in prospect on Friday, England will doubtless be grateful to have their own spearhead to return the compliment to their opponents.

"We are entertainers," said Reifer. "We are here to entertain so the players come out and entertain us. But yes, we will have a good game. I'm sure Jofra will be chomping at the bit to come at us and we will be ready for him."

Archer's decision to abandon his aspirations to play for West Indies came after he was overlooked for the Under-19 World Cup in 2014. Instead, he followed the advice of his friend and fellow Bajan-turned-England international, Chris Jordan, and took advantage of his British passport to forge a new career at Sussex. The rest, as they say, is history.

Asked if he was disappointed that Archer would be playing against, rather than for, his team on Friday, Reifer laughed and said: "He made his choice."

"Jofra is a tremendous talent, we all know that. Like I said, we are looking forward to the game on Friday.

"He obviously had the pace [to play international cricket]. He had a few injuries as a young guy. But I'm guessing though he's fully over those injuries and he is bowling very well for England."

West Indies' own fast-bowling stocks were depleted for the South Africa game with the absence of Andre Russell, who has been managing a knee problem since the start of the tournament. But Reifer said that his non-selection had merely been a precaution, given the length of the tournament and his importance to the cause.

"Yes, Andre will be fit enough for the game on Friday," he said. "The game against England is a big game for us. We are looking forward to that game. Looking at the weather forecast, it was 90 percent rain today and they had rain over the last couple of days here as well. So it is just a precautionary measure where we are kind of wrapping him in cotton wool."

Faf du Plessis insists that the furore surrounding AB de Villiers' proposed return from international retirement has not been a factor in the team's disjointed display in the World Cup to date, and in fact he believes it could be the sort of issue that draws the squad closer together as they reach the make-or-break moments of their campaign.

As revealed last week by ESPNcricinfo, de Villiers made a last-ditch offer to return to the team on the eve of the World Cup squad announcement in April, despite having walked away from international cricket in May 2018, claiming that he was "tired" and "running out of gas".

In his absence, South Africa slipped to defeat in each of their first three matches of the tournament, and du Plessis conceded that they would have been hard-pressed to prevent a fourth loss, had West Indies been able to embark on a rain-shortened run-chase in their washed-out encounter in Southampton.

The primary reason given for de Villiers' omission had been loyalty to the chosen batsmen - few of whom have so far repaid that faith in a campaign in which only three players have reached a half-century. But asked if the reaction to the breaking news had been a distraction or a chance for some honest discussions within the squad, de Villiers claimed the truth lay somewhere in between.

"I think a little bit of both," he said. "I think to say no, it didn't, or to say yes, it did, unites us as a team. We do feel like the news came in and went through the team. It didn't have a huge impact. There was just a discussion on clarity and on making sure everyone knows what's going on and then it was moving on.

"The team was happy to get on with business," he added. "But it is stuff like that, generally, that can give you direction in your team and give you purpose to focus on what lies ahead."

Du Plessis claimed that the offer had been made via a phone-call while both players were taking part in this season's IPL - du Plessis for Chennai Super Kings and de Villiers for Royal Challengers Bangalore.

"It was just a conversation," du Plessis said, "a phone call the night before the team got announced. It was just a 'This is what I'm feeling'.

"I said to him, 'I think it is too late but I will check in with the coach and the selectors the next morning to get their opinion on it, as the squad was already announced or picked'.

"But that day there was the announcement. When I spoke to the coach and the selectors the next day, they all agreed that it was way, way too late to change the team, or 99.99 percent [too late]."

On the eve of the West Indies game, Kagiso Rabada had spoken of South Africa's "interesting" build-up to the World Cup, with "a lot happening off the field". But du Plessis denied that there were any more issues that needed to be addressed, with Lungi Ngidi's impending return to fitness set to provide them with a settled squad of bowlers for the first time since the early departure of Dale Steyn with a shoulder problem.

"No, there's nothing else to be cleared out," said du Plessis. "I do honestly feel as a team we are still very strong, you know. The guys are still enjoying being on tour, enjoying being here. The guys are having fun.

"It is just performance-wise we haven't put in the performances we need and, generally, I find that when a team starts losing two or three games, it can happen that there's a few cracks that can appear in a team and the blame game can start.

"And I do honestly believe that we have been very far away from that. That is a strong sign of us as a team, as a culture, and that is one aspect of performance. You get culture and then you get the actual performance on the field.

"So it's a positive sign that everything seems intact when it comes to that. But now it is just the performance and the skill side of cricket that needs to take over."

On the subject of Ngidi, who pulled up with a hamstring injury during the defeat by Bangladesh at The Oval, du Plessis said that he could have played against West Indies, but that it was more important to get some overs in his legs before the final five games of the group stages.

"We wanted him to be ready for today purely from the fact it feels every game is a must-win game for us at the moment," he said. "But we just feel like it is more important for him to just have another three or four days to build up his loads again so he can bowl eight, nine, ten overs.

"And luckily for us today there wasn't a lot of cricket so we can throw him straight into the next game."

"It's about performance," he added. "You need individuals within your side to stand up and step up and pull the team up. We need individuals to stand up and step up to lift the team's morale. If you get that going, then other players can feed off their confidence."

ALL THE WAY back during Game 1 of these NBA Finals, before the Toronto Raptors had the two-time defending champion Golden State Warriors dazed and on the ropes, one play illustrates the most underappreciated aspect of Kawhi Leonard's absurd 2019 postseason.

The Warriors had scored a couple of baskets to cut their deficit to eight points, and desperately needed a stop to maintain their momentum -- and it looked as if they were just about to get it. With 1:31 left, Stephen Curry forced a tough, contested Kyle Lowry fadeaway from the left elbow just before the shot clock expired.

But just as Lowry was letting his shot fly, Leonard sprinted in from just above the top of the 3-point arc to snag the offensive board inside the restricted area. The play ended with a Draymond Green foul, sending Fred VanVleet to the line for free throws that sealed the outcome.

It's easy for a sequence like that to get lost, particularly when it comes to Leonard. Compile his most impressive plays and accomplishments this postseason, and this one wouldn't even sniff the list: It doesn't compete with the bouncy, historic buzzer-beater he hit to win Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. It can't eclipse how he turned around the conference finals after limiting Giannis Antetokounmpo to just 20 points per game on 43% shooting over the last four games in that series. It's hardly as impressive as the 30 or more points that Leonard has tallied 14 times since the playoffs began.

But it would be a mistake to overlook Leonard's 47 offensive rebounds this postseason, which ranks third among all players. And that number doesn't capture what's perhaps most extraordinary about the impact he has had as a rebounder.

To appreciate that, you have to consider the number of times the 27-year-old star has launched himself into the paint to grab a miss he had no business getting to in the first place.

So far this postseason, Leonard has grabbed a league-high 12 offensive rebounds where he had to move 15 feet or more from where he was standing at the time a jump shot was released, according to a SportVU analysis of Second Spectrum data. That's more than twice as many as the next-closest player, and represents more than a third of all the offensive boards off of missed jumpers that he has grabbed.

And much like that play toward the end of Game 1, a number of Leonard's long-distance offensive rebounds have come during the most critical moments of the playoffs.

Consider Game 5 against the Milwaukee Bucks: Up one point with less than two minutes to go, Leonard launched a triple from the left wing, and -- sensing he had short-armed it -- ran in to grab the miss underneath the rim, beating an entire crowd to the ball. Antetokounmpo, whistled for a foul right after the rebound, clapped his hands together in frustration. Leonard hit both free throws to push his team's lead to three, the closest Milwaukee would get the rest of the way, as Toronto held on to win the pivotal game 105-99.

Then in the series-ending Game 6, with a minute left and the Raptors up by five, Leonard swooped in from the free throw line to nab a short miss by Pascal Siakam -- once again coming up with not only a winning play but also a ball he wasn't supposed to secure.

THIS PAST WEEK Leonard was asked about a now-viral old saying from his college days -- "The board man gets paid" -- and gave his perspective on the value of rebounding.

"I used to say that when I was in high school and college, just wanting to get to this league," Leonard said. "It's about working hard, basically. Outworking the opponent. Rebounds help you win games. Big rebounds, offensive rebounds. Limiting the opponent to one shot. That used to be our motto, some of us in college that were trying to get to this point."

Now that Leonard has gotten to this point, he has become such a dominant presence that even the most routine-looking rebound opportunities aren't safe for opposing defenses.

Take a third-quarter possession from Game 3 of the East semifinals against the Philadelphia 76ers. About 30 seconds into the period, Lowry drove to his left around JJ Redick, but left a layup short. Redick shielded Lowry from grabbing the miss, and Philadelphia point guard Ben Simmons was there to retrieve the ball to head back up the floor. But seemingly out of nowhere, Leonard shot through the lane and got his massive left hand on the ball, wresting control of it for himself and Toronto.

So how does Leonard actually do this? His enormous wingspan -- a remarkable 7-foot-3 span atop a 6-foot-7 frame -- and strength are obvious factors, and his split-second speed catches plenty of opposing players off guard. But it is also the wisdom of knowing the right time to take that sort of risk; especially against a team like the Warriors, who posted the highest effective field goal percentage in transition during the regular season.

Raptors coach Nick Nurse says he has only one rule for offensive rebounding: His players must be decisive, to avoid getting caught in no man's land, in a spot where they have neither the ability to make an impact on the glass nor a chance to get back on defense. And Leonard has excelled at that. He has opted to crash the boards from 15 feet out about twice as frequently as the average NBA player this postseason, yet he has been successful -- and secured boards from that far away -- almost 39% of the time. That's well above the league average of 30% on such offensive rebounding attempts.

The metrics speak to how sound Leonard's approach -- and by extension, Toronto's approach -- often is, even when he's gambling.

Ask Danny Green, Leonard's teammate for the past eight years, and he'll say that he isn't surprised when he sees a Leonard-sized blur fly past him to steal an offensive rebound. But what about the slumped shoulders and contorted faces he sees afterward from the defense? Green says that never gets old.

"Those plays change the energy, flow and momentum completely. They're game-winning plays," Green said. "It drains the life out of them whenever he does it."