MIAMI – Between the gate of an aircraft out of San Antonio and the landing ground here, Kawhi Leonard harnessed frustration for a poor reflection of his basketball gifts. He sits stoically everywhere – from the plane to the locker room – and teammates never misguide his straight face for lack of desire. Somber and contrite, they expect out of Leonard, and they know responsibility will forever be taken on individual setbacks.

Leonard is the connector of present and future on the Spurs’ legendary dynasty of championship contention, an heir to the generational core of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili and a once in a lifetime decade of sustainability. Gregg Popovich has persistent belief, they all do around the Spurs: One day, Leonard will grow out of his role as a foundational part – and become the foundation.

Never a better time to deliver the Spurs' vision of the here and now, and fortune, than these NBA Finals, and Leonard swept the Miami Heat into a stream they never saw coming. Leonard scored 29 points on 10 of 13 shooting, grabbed four rebounds, blocked two shots and registered two steals in San Antonio’s 111-92 win on Tuesday night, and he struck from every angle on the floor, from three-point range to rim attacks, spot-up jumpers to slivering baseline cuts.

The Spurs placed a beautiful exhibition, once again cemented themselves two games from an NBA title with a 2-1 series lead and Leonard centered their precision and thrust. As Dwyane Wade sighed, “Kawhi was very aggressive.” The best game of someone’s basketball life, and even now so calm, so still, such serenity on the face – just the way these Spurs know Leonard.

“You don’t see emotions in him,” Tiago Splitter told RealGM. “Really, he’s not a guy who shows any emotions. When he makes a mistake, he makes a worse face. Sometimes, he shows, but for the regular basis, he doesn’t show.”

None of the San Antonio players boast and tout, and Leonard is no exception. The press conference area remains a reserved give-and-take for him, and soon, he had trudged past the hoard around him late Tuesday.

A cameraman among the crowd blocked a passage to his locker, so Leonard tiled his head up and asked politely.

“Excuse me, sir.”

He cleared, and Leonard sat on a chair and removed his socks. Off to the showers he went. As much as any factor, the Spurs had come away from Leonard’s pre-draft interviews in 2011 impressed with his demeanor. I’m stone cold but Kawhi takes it to another level, Duncan’s joked. George Hill had earned a niche behind Parker and under Popovich, but R.C. Buford and his staff discovered a gem with the Indiana Pacers’ No. 15 selection, a groomed prospect for whom a price had to be paid.

Everyone noticed Leonard had deviated from his aggressiveness toward LeBron James in the series’ first two games, and Popovich explained to his small forward to simply play like this was the regular season. Leonard suffocated James defensively now, five turnovers out of LeBron in the second half and seven total. Miami had been blitzed with San Antonio’s torching start, and subsequent runs had proved futile. They’ll correct whatever ails their schemes, but Wade had this right: These next two days will be dark, containing all the timid phenomenon’s surrounding the Heat.

Nineteen of their first 21 field-goals made, and no one on the Spurs had seen anything like it. Danny Green’s memory seeped into one of his old high school games in New York, where his team had drained shot upon shot to begin a game. Never like this, though, never a first half that had Spurs players so wishing for a swift halftime.

“We wanted to keep playing even though the half ended,” Green said.

As much as anyone, Leonard understood the Spurs’ plight in Game 2, a fountain of missed opportunities and collapsed play sets down the stretch. “Even though we blew the last game, we were back at it,” Leonard said at the center of the locker room.

For a night, the Spurs’ legendary Big Three all yielded to Leonard’s superstar emergence like never before. They performed solid and ordinary, and suddenly a polished 22-year-old recognized a void needed filling.

On his walk out of AmericanAirlines Arena, Leonard’s eyes caught Tim Grover, and they shook hands and Leonard told Grover that he’d connect on workouts with the famed trainer in the offseason. Even now, Leonard understands he must develop as a shot creator, develop his post game, develop into a top-tier option and continue to find edges.

History shows: The Spurs take care of their own – their brand of characters – and work fast to lock up foundational parts, and they’re bound to do the same when Leonard becomes eligible for a contract extension in the summer. For now, only these Finals immerse Leonard’s mind.

The plane ride to Miami overnight Sunday brought the same scene of Leonard. Quiet, nothing new. And still, he had cognizance of two Finals games beneath his talent. Suddenly, his enormous hands and unequivocal length and offensive proactivity wreaked havoc everywhere and it flashed before everyone. This was his shooting night, his game and a vision into destined fate: Kawhi Leonard’s franchise.