How did the Spurs play so well without Kawhi Leonard?

San Antonio does things the right way, every time, no matter who’s on the roster. That’s how they withstood Kawhi Leonard’s 27-game absence.

Somehow, someway, the San Antonio Spurs keep winning basketball games. As all-world defender, all-world shot maker and Terminator in-training Kawhi Leonard sat idly nursing a quad injury for 27 games, the Spurs maintained their standing among the West’s elite.

San Antonio has the conference’s third-best record at 19-8, less than a handful of games behind the runaway favorite Warriors and Rockets. Leonard will return Tuesday against the Mavericks, but the Spurs have managed to stay afloat without him.

Kyrie Irving said it best: “There’s no one like the Spurs.” This season, without Leonard, here’s why:

“They’ve created a culture in which teams have tried to emulate around the league, tried to take specific plays, but at the end of the day, there’s no one like the Spurs,” Irving said via ESPN’s Chris Forsberg. “They’re gonna do what they do. Pop is gonna demand excellence out of every single possession, and that’s the type of team you can really learn more about yourself going against because they’ll put you in a position most teams won’t.”

They move the damn ball

It could all be so simple!

The Spurs don’t average 30 assists per game like the Warriors. They’re not even a top-10 team in dimes on the year. But San Antonio averages 4.3 hockey assists per game — the pass before the assist. That’s the second-most in the NBA behind, you guessed it, the Warriors.

And it’s a testament to how fluid their offense is even without their star.

Without Leonard, LaMarcus Aldridge balled out

Aldridge averaged nearly 23 points per game 50 percent shooting in the first 27 games of the season. Months after Spurs management flirted with the idea of trading their star forward, they are enjoying some of his best basketball.

“He’s really gotten us through this time without Tony and Kawhi in a really wonderful way,” Popovich said, via Fox Sports Southwest. “We’d really be lost without him. ... LaMarcus is doing it on the defensive end, the offensive end, and as a leader.”

“He’s been a perfect leader, really because of the effort,” Kyle Anderson added during a shootaround in late November. “There’s not anyone on our team that’s went out there and played harder than him.”

The resurgence stemmed from an offseason heart-to-heart between Popovich and Aldridge. Aldridge confronted the coach about his lack of comfort in the Spurs’ system, and the two sat down and came to an understanding. Later, Popovich admitted he tried to overcoach Aldridge in the past:

“We broke bread a few times, talked about it, laughed about it, discussed what we thought needed to happen, and frankly 95 percent of it fell on me because I made an error in trying to change him too much,” Popovich told NBA.com’s Shaun Powell. “That might sound odd, but he’d been in the league nine years and there’s one way he plays on the offensive end and feels comfortable with. I tried to turn him into Jack Sikma, told him I was going to teach you how to play on the elbow, go on the wing, face up. It was confusing for him. It really didn’t fit his style of play. I was guilty of over coaching in a sense.

Bryn Forbes and Dejounte Murray can hoop

Had it not been for those meddling kids — and in this case, the chief meddling kid was Lonzo Ball — Forbes probably would have been named Summer League MVP. The crowds at both the Thomas & Mack Center and Cox Pavillion at UNLV ooh’d and aah’d at Forbes’ explosion after explosion in Las Vegas.

He was shooting with the ease and confidence of Stephen Curry, and that’s no exaggeration. Twenty-seven games into the regular season, Forbes is averaging 6.7 points in 18 minutes per game on 43 percent shooting from downtown.

Dejounte Murray is also evolving before our eyes. Fans saw flashes of promise last season — 11 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and two steals in the playoffs to eliminate the Rockets in Game 6, in particular. But while Parker recovered from a devastating ruptured quad in last year’s playoffs, Murray held down the fort.

In San Antonio’s season opener, he had 16 points and only missed one shot. The Spurs beat the Timberwolves by eight. Murray’s scored in double figures on eight other occasions, and had 17 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and three steals in a narrow loss to Oklahoma City.

We don’t know what the Spurs’ future holds, but if Forbes and Murray are a part of it, San Antonio should be in good hands down the line.

Defense **clap, clap** Defense **clap, clap**

The Spurs aren’t all offensive execution, though that’s their bread and butter. They’ve continued their stringent defensive efforts.

San Antonio has the third-best defense in the league behind only the Celtics and the Thunder, holding opponents to just 101.1 points per 100 possessions. In fact, the Spurs have been a top-four defense every season since 2012-13.

Tony Parker’s back

Many had their reservations as to whether Parker could rebound from his ruptured quad. If you saw his reaction in the moment, you’d be bearish on his return, too.

But Parker is back. And while he won’t be the 2008-13 version of his prime self that averaged career-highs in points and assists, he’s still valuable as a facilitator, playmaker, mentor, and an extension of his head coach on the floor.

Parker has only been back a short while but, his presence is palpable. The Spurs are 6-0 in games he’s played versus 13-8 with him out. They’re also averaging 13.1 more points per 100 possessions when he’s on the floor, according to NBA.com.

Oh yeah, and Gregg Popovich is the man

Popovich currently sits sixth all-time on the NBA’s coaching wins leaderboard and will pass George Karl for fifth place very soon. If he sticks around for three more seasons, he will become the most winningest head coach in league history.

Gregg Popovich could go down as the best coach of all-time. He creates systems that cater to his players’ strengths, and they thrive as a result.

Without Leonard, the Spurs may not possess the level of talent on paper as, say, the Warriors, Cavaliers, or Thunder. And they may not have the flashy, electrifying players like the Bucks or Rockets.

But they’ll be in the mix at the top every season because their system can compensate for the absence of their star. And if you’re a Spurs fan, that’s all you care about.

This story was updated on Dec. 12 with the news of Leonard’s return from injury.