NBA star Kawhi Leonard is ‘stepping away’ from the Los Angeles Clippers to help family that have been evacuated due to the Pacific Palisades wildfire hours before the team’s game against the Nuggets.

Leonard has been with the Clippers since 2019 and is an integral part of the squad, which is in seventh place in the Western Conference.

The Clippers are already likely in Denver for the Western Conference matchup before Leonard’s absence became public knowledge, per Chris Haynes.

So far, there have been two deaths from the Pacific Palisades fires with thousands of buildings destroyed.

The blaze began around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, shortly after the start of a Santa Ana windstorm that the National Weather service warned could be ‘life-threatening’ and the strongest to hit Southern California in more than a decade.

The winds were expected to increase overnight and continue for days, producing isolated gusts that could top 100mph (160kph) in mountains and foothills – including in areas that haven´t seen substantial rain in months.

Kawhi Leonard is ‘stepping away’ from the Clippers to help evacuated due to the wildfire

There have been two deaths from the Pacific Palisades fires with tons of buildings destroyed

The Clippers have a home game scheduled for Saturday against the Charlotte Hornets, who may not come to town early with another road game against the Lakers still slated for Thursday.

The Los Angeles Kings’ NHL game against Calgary is the first event postponed because of the wildfires.

Leonard made his season debut with the Clippers just last week after missing the team’s first 34 games of the year with injury.

Now the Clippers will be without arguably their best player for an indefinite amount of time.

The Clippers nor the NBA have put out a statement on the matter or the postponement of any future games as of Wednesday afternoon.

Leonard is a six-time NBA All-Star and a two-time NBA Finals MVP.