Will Kawhi re-sign now that the Raptors lost a game in the finals? All the hot-takes today, folks…all of them…
Raptors’ box-and-one nearly allows defence to take Game 2 from Warriors – The Athletic
“I was feeling really good because we stopped their scoring and finally got something figured out there to slow them down,” Nurse said. “And we were getting a bunch of wide-open shots, I think we missed three wide-open 3s in a row there to cut it to maybe four, right, and maybe it was five. I don’t know what exactly what it was, but a bunch of stops in a row and we didn’t get much to show for it at the other end. But I’m really proud of our guys for fighting and battling.”
That the Raptors came up short means that this box-and-one look will probably be forgotten in a few days time. Curry believes whatever was ailing him will be better by Game 3 and Kerr seemed to at least half-believe Thompson that his hamstring will be fine for Wednesday, too. Durant’s return looms. There probably won’t be many more lineups the Raptors can throw this kind of look out against, and it’s a bit of a gimmicky look that the Warriors may have figured out eventually, anyway.
It does point to a few potential positives moving forward. Nurse has made good defensive adjustments after losses all playoffs, and while a zone is unlikely to be a heavy part of that game plan against a very talented team, the success of that five-minute shutout stretch points to an ability of this defence to execute different approaches well. That’s only a small solace after a very tough loss in a game the Raptors almost certainly needed to win at home with Durant and Thompson out. But overall they can play much better and smarter than this. They’ve bounced back all playoffs. This will be the stickiest of surfaces to rebound off yet, but late-game defensive progress at least offers something tangible to build from.
Raptors lost their composure against Warriors in Game 2 – Yahoo
Toronto was on tilt, and Golden State calmly capitalized on its mistakes. It wasn’t Stephen Curry jumpers that killed the Raptors — it was a never-ending slew of backdoor cuts, big-to-big lobs on the interior, and an unforgivable brain fart not to foul Draymond Green on the final possession that saw Andre Iguodala shut the door on a wide-open three. Toronto didn’t lack effort — it just made too many mistakes.
“I thought we were just a little bit impatient and didn’t hold enough composure just to either, A, get to a strong shot, or B, move it to the next one,” Nurse said.
The Warriors might be shorthanded, but they made up the gap with experience. Curry is an elite offensive system onto himself, Green guarded all five positions while also running point, Andrew Bogut delivered a shot in the arm with his clever positioning along the baseline, while Shaun Livingston won a crucial loose ball against Leonard to set up Iguodala’s three. Even when they went ice cold in the fourth, the Warriors still kept playing defense and hung on for the win.
Desperation won’t get it done against the two-time reigning champions. If the Raptors are to win the series, they will need to maintain their composure and continue to execute. Leonard can generate a good look against anyone, while Siakam is great on the block in a mismatch. Lowry can usually create something decent out of pick-and-roll, while Gasol is an excellent playmaker up top. The Warriors are sending help to get the Raptors away from their preferred spots, but that means there will be open shooters so long as they move the ball.
Until Kevin Durant returns, the Raptors can clearly hang with the Warriors. Toronto has won six out of eight quarters so far, and it was Golden State that had to make the first adjustments. The Raptors just lost their composure for a moment, and that cost them. They’ll be alright if they keep their cool moving forward.
Raptors fumble Game 2 leaving questions that need answers – Sportsnet.ca
The expectation is that Golden State might get two-time Finals MVP Kevin Durant back for one of the two games back in Oakland, although Klay Thompson had to leave Game 2 with a sore hamstring and Kevon Looney with a shoulder problem.
Still, nothing easy, not that the Raptors were expecting anything different.
“I don’t know like what you guys thought this series was going to look like, but we went into it expecting a dog fight,” said Raptors guard VanVleet, who played playoff career-high 38 minutes off the bench, chipping in 17 points on 17 shots. “And, yes, we won Game 1 [but] I think everybody else outside of our locker room was a lot more excited than we were. We understand what this team brings and what type of effort it’s going to take to beat these guys.”
The things they need to work on isn’t overwhelming, but it’s not short either.
The Raptors struggled to adjust to the officiating all night which – in fairness — seemed fairly inconsistent. Toronto was over-aggressive early and ended as the Warriors survived an otherwise shaky first quarter by taking 13 free throws in the first 12 minutes, negating an otherwise impressive defensive effort where the Raptors held the Warriors to 37 per cent shooting.
The calls normalized – in the end the Raptors were whistled for 22 fouls to 26 for the Warriors and the free throws attempts ended up being 26-23 in favour of Toronto. But the Raptors seemed to sag somewhat defensively in the third as they backed off the physical play. Kyle Lowry was in foul trouble and out of rhythm all night and eventually fouled out with four minutes left.
“You try not to [let the officiating affect you] but it’s the nature of the game,” said VanVleet, who helped make life difficult for Curry who finished 6-of-17 from the floor for 23 points. “And you understand if like you come down and you’re holding him and they call a foul, and hold them and you come down the next time you hold him, and he push you in the chest and make a three. So that’s just kind of how the officiating goes. And as players you got to do a better job of adjusting and trying to find that fine line and straddle that line.”
Warriors back up their boast, use second-half burst to beat Raptors | The Star
So, missed chance. Everyone knew the Warriors were going to come with a champion’s effort, because they said so. The era of Curry, Thompson and Draymond Green is a legendary one, they believe, and they have good reason. The Warriors had never lost Game 1 of a Finals. In the five years and 20 playoff series of this Golden State era, the Warriors had only trailed in a series four times, or five if you include losing Game 7 in 2016. That was the only playoff series they had lost, by the way. They had lost Game 1 once before, against the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2015. Ask Serge Ibaka, then a member of the Thunder, how that series went. At one point, the Thunder had a 3-1 lead.
“Man, that’s hurting me,” the Raptors big man said before this series began. “Every time I think about it I’m like, man. Yes, still. 3-1, and we lost? Come on, man. That still hurts, it still hurts.” He calls it the worst loss of his career.
So this wasn’t a still-coalescing Philadelphia 76ers team, or a first-time Milwaukee Bucks outfit that couldn’t adjust. These are the champs, Durant’s injury and all. Former President Barack Obama was in the crowd because he’s friends with Raptors president Masai Ujiri, but he’s also Curry’s golfing buddy, and the man the Warriors visited instead of going to celebrate their 2018 championship with the current freak show at the White House. Champs get to meet the best people.
Well, now the Raptors have missed a chance. They did this in Game 1 against Milwaukee, and it didn’t matter. They did it in Game 2 against Philadelphia, and it didn’t matter, just. The Raptors can play in this series; other than the third quarter of Game 2, they have been the better team.
But now they are chasing the champs, and Durant gets closer to a return with every day. Maybe Thompson will play through his hamstring pull, or maybe he sits. But Game 3 is a chance for Toronto to pull this thing back. And they have to believe, too.
“I mean, we’re in the same boat they kind of were in coming here,” Nurse said. “We got to go out there and get one, right? That’s all we got to do, is get one. And we can do that.”
Wednesday night in Oakland, the Raptors get another chance. Don’t miss.
The Warriors had 34 assists on 38 made field goals, and assisted on all 22 of their makes in the second half. That is the kind of thing Kerr dreams about, and it is the kind of thing that is necessary to manufacture points against this defense without Durant. In order to find their rhythm, they had to push the pace, and that doesn’t just mean trying to get out on the break. When they are at their best, they have an energy about them. Layups and open 3s seem to materialize out of thin air, and they seem to have a counter for everything the defense does. Everybody is a threat, even the non-shooters.
“They moved the ball really well and were running freely,” Gasol said. “Once they run freely, everything opens up for them.”
“We had a verve to us,” Golden State guard Quinn Cook said.
Golden State was not at its peak for the entirety of the evening. It went scoreless for more than five minutes before Iguodala’s clutch 3 with seven seconds left. During the game-changing run, though, the Warriors reminded me of what they did to the Houston Rockets in the immediate aftermath of Durant’s injury. It even brought back memories of what they did to the Oklahoma City Thunder after falling behind 3-1 in the 2016 Western Conference finals. Every champion needs to be able to handle adversity, and there is no question that Golden State can do that. (Toronto would point out that it is resilient, too — it came back from a 2-1 deficit and won Game 7 against the Sixers, then lost the first two against the Bucks and won the next four.)
Remember when Kerr said the Warriors “stole” Game 2 against the Portland Trail Blazers? Remember when the coach called them “f—ing giants” after they won the game in which Durant got hurt? Golden State has a habit of coming alive at the exact moment you think it might be dead. When it cannot dominate, it has the ability to do just enough to win. That, just as much as smallball, 3-point shooting and beautiful ball movement, is part of the Warriors’ DNA.
Six-minute monster- The Warriors run that won Game 2 – ESPN
For context, understand that the Warriors trailed by 12 points in this game, on the road, and they were, again, playing without the services of Kevin Durant. They started DeMarcus Cousins, who is still working his way back from a torn quad muscle, and asked him to log 27.5 minutes. They withstood a trio of scares: when Steph Curry briefly retreated to the locker room to address flu-like symptoms or dehydration, depending on whom you asked; when Iguodala left the floor after being powdered by a stout Marc Gasol screen; and when Klay Thompson crumpled to the court after injuring his hamstring early in the fourth quarter. The hobbled Splash Brother will undergo an MRI when the team gets back to Oakland on Monday.
“Klay said he’ll be fine,” Kerr said after the game, “but Klay could be half-dead, and he would say he would be fine.”
With their most redoubtable players limping to the finish, the Warriors needed — and got — a pair of gigantic 3s from Quinn Cook to stay afloat. They needed — and got — some spirited cameo minutes from Andrew Bogut, who had played a grand total of 47 minutes since the start of the second round entering Sunday.
They looked to their battered veteran, Iguodala, who was encased in ice postgame to ease the woes of multiple body parts, to seal the victory in the final seconds with a dagger 3-pointer.
The Warriors have 21 double-digit comebacks in the past five postseasons. Ten of those have come on the road. Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP
In other words, it wasn’t just the usual suspects who tipped the scales for Golden State.“We’ve been through a lot,” Iguodala said. “All everyone sees is a lot of winning, and it’s easy, and it looks like we’re overpowering everybody. But a lot of work goes into that. And we’ve had to fight these injuries, every year …”
As the visiting team savored a win that left the players physically and mentally taxed, you had to wonder how the hometown Raptors will reconcile failing to capitalize on the opportunity before them, with Golden State’s depth depleted and Curry, the consummate marksman, faltering in the early going.
Another player might have allowed a shooter’s most dreaded affliction — doubt — to envelop him in a warm embrace after more than 16 minutes of nothing but misses, but Steph Curry is not like most players. (Ask the Houston Rockets about that.) Golden State’s supernova watched his first six consecutive offerings roll off or clang short, but it did not deter him from continuing to fire away or from believing the next one would go in.
Stop me when you’ve heard this before. Curry, the poster boy of positive self-talk, finally connected on his first field goal with 2:50 left before halftime, then went on to drill six of his final eight, including one of his trademark floaters during the game-changing spurt.
During that 18-0 beatdown, the Raptors missed eight straight shots and turned the ball over five times. They rushed, they pressed, and they crumbled under the weight of Golden State’s incessant pressure.
Winners and Losers: The Hurting Warriors Broke the Raptors in Game 2 – The Ringer
Loser: Pascal Siakam’s Regression
Regression to the mean is a brutal reality, and Siakam felt the brunt of it in Game 2. After going 14-of-17 in Game 1, Siakam was stifled on Sunday, shooting 5-of-18. The corner 3s that fell in Game 1 were falling short, and the sudden aggression that allowed him to barrel through Draymond evaporated. In some ways, it was predictable that Siakam would take a trip back down to earth after the best game of his life. But it wasn’t just his shooting that suffered. His decision-making did too, especially in the most important possession of the game:
In Game 1, his youth and relative inexperience were touted to enhance the performance he put together. But Sunday’s game showed us the flip side of those traits. Siakam has now had at least one great game in each of the Raptors’ playoff series. Logic says Siakam will bounce back. But Toronto had better hope that Game 2, not 1, was an aberration.
Warriors players are dropping like flies in the NBA Finals, and they’re still winning – SBNation.com
The Warriors playing out their doomsday scenario to victory made them feel as inevitable as ever. Each Cook-made three — let alone each Andrew Bogut lob dunk — was an insult to a really well-constructed Toronto roster, and every crafty Cousins pass on a gimpy leg was exhausting.
There was little controversy when Golden State put its remaining money into a then-injured Cousins instead of flushing out its bench because a situation as damning as this one wasn’t conscionable. Management put its faith into the team remaining healthy enough, knowing even if not, starpower would prevail. Turns out even the Warriors worst nightmares can be conquered.
Still, the series is a best 3-out-of-5 now. The status of the Warriors’ fresh injuries are unknown, as well as the return of Durant. Thompson says he “doesn’t see himself missing Game 3,” per Yahoo’s Chris Haynes. But, as Steve Kerr said, “Klay said he’ll be fine. But Klay can be half dead and he’ll say he’s fine.” His absence on top of a still-delayed Durant return would leave very few shot-creators left on the floor for Golden State in Game 3, where homecourt can be lost all over again.
The Warriors nearly choked their lead away late in Game 2 without those two, going scoreless for five minute and 32 seconds until Andre Iguodala’s dagger three with seven seconds to play. What does this team look like without them for an entire 48?
Until health statuses are confirmed, Warriors fans can only rejoice after a heckuva battle. The Warriors were never supposed to be tested like this.
‘Strength in Numbers’ Defining Golden State Warriors’ Run at History | Bleacher Report
Now, as the series shifts back to Oakland for Game 3, the Golden State Wicks will need everyone at the ready again. With OG Anunoby activated for Game 2, the Raptors have an entirely clean bill of basketball health. No one is on the injury report.
Golden State’s injury report is longer than some shopping lists.
According to Yahoo’s Chris Haynes, Thompson expects to play in Game 3, but he’s also getting an MRI for his hamstring. Even if he’s in the lineup, he may not be at 100 percent.
Maybe the huge shots on Wednesday will come from Jonas Jerebko or Alfonzo McKinnie. Maybe Sunday’s heroes will step up again.
If they don’t, the Raptors will have a good shot at reclaiming home-court advantage. As pointed out by Bleacher Report’s Adam Fromal, this Toronto team has the best score in simple rating system (point differential plus strength of schedule) of any Finals opponent the Warriors have faced during this run.
Wick had Laurence Fishburne, Halle Berry, Ian McShane and The Continental. Against a team as good as the Raptors, the Warriors will need more than Curry and Durant to complete the three-peat.
The Warriors Ride the Lightning to an NBA Finals Split – The Ringer
The Finals have been as competitive as anyone could have hoped in the first two games, and with both teams laboring in one way or another, so begins the joy of tedium. Matchup adjustments, pain management, minutes restrictions both enforced and relinquished. The Warriors, despite the impressive win given all their physical ailments, have to be at least a little concerned about Game 2 becoming a Pyrrhic victory. Thompson has played 96 percent of 640 available regular-season games in his eight-year career and has yet to miss a playoff game. He will certainly try to play Game 3, but what does a compromised Klay look like given his overwhelming responsibilities on both ends of the floor? DeMarcus Cousins stepped up in big minutes on Sunday, serving as a kind of avatar for these wounded Warriors, a lapsed superstar who has uncharacteristically embodied the “Strength in Numbers” team mantra. But these Finals games are the only he’s played in a month and a half. What happens if he can’t maintain consistency in bigger minutes, should Looney miss extended time? And if Kevin Durant returns on Wednesday, does any of this matter?
Golden State rode the lightning to take Game 2, and while they flashed some of the hallmarks of their dynasty—a Thompson explosion, Curry-Green pick-and-rolls, an 18-0 third-quarter run, Iguodala heroics when you least expect them—it wasn’t a classic win given the bar they’ve created for themselves, but it was the kind of win the team needed. They took care of business even as potential excuses mounted. When was the last time we were able to earnestly label the team “resilient”?
The Warriors are in the Finals for the fifth straight season. They’ve been at the top long enough to go from being the 3-point-shooting team that finally broke stereotypes en route to a championship to gatekeepers of the dying art form of the midrange jumper. They’ve survived injury scares, fatigue, malaise, and sensationalized headlines. They’ve played an average of 102 games per season over these past five seasons. What if this is the year that the extra wear finally does the entire team in?
It’s an interesting thought. The Warriors, somehow, after five straight seasons at the summit, have become the high-variance team of the Finals. We’ve lamented their presence at the top as something preordained. But for the first time in a long time, at this level of basketball, the sense of uncertainty weighs heavier than their inevitability.
Intelligence, not perfection, is required for Raptors to topple the Warriors – The Athletic
“Some of the things I don’t necessarily agree with, but they’re called,” Lowry said.
“I’m not going to get in trouble. But a couple of them I didn’t think I fouled. Then you’ve got to just keep moving on. At the end of the day, I just have to put myself in a better position not to foul.”
Lowry’s first point, that the officiating was bad, does not absolve him from the second point, that he has to make better choices. Lowry and Ibaka both took loose ball fouls late in the first quarter, despite already being in the penalty. At that point, the Raptors were still doing a very good job of locking up the Warriors in the half court, Thompson aside, and the Raptors should have been prioritizing making Golden State earn points in that setting. The teams combined to shoot 49 free throws, missing only six. You cannot just give them those points.
Finally, in the fourth quarter, the Raptors blew their final defensive possession. To be clear, it almost worked out for them, with Kawhi Leonard coming tantalizingly close to stealing the ball, which would have given the Raptors the ball in transition, trailing by just a bucket. Still, at that point there was just a 2.9-second difference between the game clock and the shot clock. After an initial trap, the Raptors should have fouled anybody but Steph Curry there, trying to extend the game any way they could. Andre Iguodala drilled the 3-pointer that the play produced, but the Raptors could have fouled Shaun Livingston or Draymond Green with high teens still left in the game. There was time enough to play the free throw game once or twice.
“That’s a definite foul situation,” Nurse said. “They could hold it all the way to the end, throw it up there, hit the rim and the horn’s going to go off. I’ve been in that situation before. So usually under 28 — if there’s 28 or more you’re going to play solid defence, if it’s 27.9 or under you’re (going to foul).”
In the end, the Warriors shot 38.2 percent on their 34 3-point attempts, while the Raptors shot 28.9 percent on their 38 attempts. That was the difference, and it will be hard for the Raptors to beat any version of the Warriors shooting at that clip.
Not impossible, though. The Raptors won three of the quarters, yet had self-inflicted mistakes in all of them that contributed to the loss just as much as Golden State’s brilliant play in the third quarter. The Raptors are smart enough to know you don’t need to give the Warriors help.
How the Warriors stole Game 2 with an offensive run for the ages – Sportsnet.ca
That the Raptors even scored those 21 in the quarter, and lost it by only 13, is a minor accomplishment considering how disastrously things went over the first six minutes. From VanVleet’s three-pointer on, the Raptors won the remainder of the quarter, 21-16. But the damage was done.
Of course, the Raptors are not the first team to experience one of Golden State’s latter-half sieges on this stage. At this time last year, the Warriors essentially rode their third-quarter dominance to a second consecutive title.
Over the course of 21 games in the 2018 playoffs, the Warriors outscored opponents by 153 points in third quarters, with 50 of those points coming in series-deciding games. In eight of their 11 contests over the final two rounds against the Houston Rockets and Cleveland Cavaliers, the Warriors went into the third quarter either tied or trailing eight times. They won seven of those quarters.
And then there was this year’s Western Conference Finals, which the Warriors won in a sweep of the Portland Trail Blazers despite trailing three of the games by 17. The Warriors won the third quarter of the second game in that series by 15, and the third quarter of the third game by 16.
The Raptors knew this coming into the series, they talked about it as they prepared, and you can bet they mentioned it in the dressing room at halftime of both of the games played so far during these NBA Finals. But knowing that Warriors push is coming is one thing. Stopping it is another.
“We’ve got to be better to start the third and we know that — that’s something that we’ll focus on and look at the tape and see how we can be better next game,” VanVleet said. “When we have good offence and we’re able to get our defence set, we can live with that. But when we’re turning the ball over and not getting good shots and not making any shots and you’ve got to guard those guys in transition every play, it gets tough. And that’s what you saw.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvP2sK7x734&feature=youtu.be&t=118
DeMarcus Cousins turns in crucial Game 2 Finals performance – Mercury News
“I want to be on this stage,” Cousins said. “This is what I’ve worked for my entire career, to be on this stage, to have this opportunity to play for something. Once they told me I had a chance, a slight chance of being able to return, it basically was up to me. The work and the time I put in behind the injury, it was up to me.
“So I put the work in and the time in and with God’s grace I’m able to be out here and play the game that I love.”
On Sunday night, Cousins snatched rebounds out of mid-air like his bounce had never been hampered. He slung crisp passes all over the court, one to Andre Iguodala in the corner for the go-ahead 3 early in the third quarter as part of an 18-0 run, then a slick over-the-shoulder feed a minute later to a cutting Klay Thompson for an easy two points. After scoring all three of his points at the foul line in Game 1, Cousins made three field goals in Game 2, a swish from beyond the arc among them.
Three days after he looked fatigued and even still injured running up and down the court, Cousins looked spry with the Warriors down 1-0 on the road. With center Kevon Looney sidelined the entire second half with a left chest contusion, Cousins played almost 17 second-half minutes, nine more than he played in Game 1’s entirety.
Cousins told Warriors coach Steve Kerr entering Game 2 he’d provide whatever Kerr needed. Cousins was fine coming off the bench or starting, playing a mere eight minutes like Game 1 or a hefty 40. Kerr decided to make Cousins the Warriors’ fourth starting center of these playoffs, and the call paid off.
“He was great,” Kerr said. “We came in thinking, all right, he can maybe play 20 minutes and he gave us almost 28. There was only one time in the game when he needed a rest, which was mid-fourth and we gave him a couple minutes and then got him back in the game. But he was fantastic and we needed everything he gave out there, his rebounding, his toughness, his physical presence, getting the ball in the paint, and just playing big, like he does.
“We needed all of that, so he was fantastic.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JV7xlMCKELM
Final Score: Shorthanded Warriors shock Raptors 109-104 in Game 2 – Golden State Of Mind
Don’t they know the Warriors love third quarters?
To start the third period DeMarcus Cousins TOOK OVER THE GAME, keying an 18-0 run with his brilliant passing and strong presence down low. The Toronto crowd went into a stunned hush with each brick and turnover the Raptors coughed up against the Warriors vicious defense.
Quinn Cook and Cousins kept the Warriors afloat early in the fourth, pushing the lead to 98-88.
Thompson stopped running though, the result of a bump from Danny Green on a three-point attempt a few posesssions earlier. He limped out of the game and went directly into the locker room. How many bodies do the Warriors have left?
But the Warriors still flexed their usual third quarter swag.
The Raptors began playing a Box-And-1 defense, a zone designed to force everyone to shoot threes except Curry, who they chased constantly with multiple bodies. Toronto wore down the lead and pulled within two points with 26 seconds left.
That set the stage for a former Finals MVP to do what he does best: dominate in the clutch.
#DAGGER
Our boys are coming home to Oakland with a 1-1 split folks. For everyone who fretted about the Raptors having a better regular season and having home court for the Finals: why work 82 games for HCA when you can take it in 1?
#STRENGTHINNUMBERS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX3TeQDbe8Q&feature=youtu.be&t=412
NBA Finals: Warriors battle past Raptors despite injury woes – Mercury News
DeMarcus Cousins deserves a ton of credit for the victory as well. After coming off the bench in Game 1 following his quad injury — sustained in the second game of the playoffs and at the time believed to be season-ending — Cousins was absolutely fantastic in the second half of Sunday’s game, pulling down big rebound after big rebound and providing a positive offense for a team that needed him more than they ever had, after Kevon Looney sprained his collarbone in the first half, knocking him out for the rest of the game.
Cousins had 11 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists on the night, giving the Warriors just a little bit of everything they needed at just the right time and perhaps flipping the narrative of his uninspiring Golden State tenure in a single night.
And Andre Iguodala deserves a game ball, too — playing hobbled after a calf injury in Game 1 and a collision with Marc Gasol in the first half, he knocked down his first three pointer since the second round, and then hit two more, including including the one that iced the contest with six seconds to play. It was the only basket the Warriors made in the final 5:39 of the game.
Give a game ball to Quinn Cook — who made three much-needed 3-pointers himself and was solid, even in crunch-time minutes Sunday — and Andrew Bogut — who provided more than passable play, giving the Warriors some much-needed rim protection and some above-the-rim offense, too. The duo made sure that the team’s “Strength in Numbers” slogan didn’t look like a cruel joke.
And then there’s Stephen Curry, who was going up against a stifling defense that he called “janky” and clearly flighting some sort of illness. Still, he found it in himself to push the Warriors to a win as well, both in that third-quarter run that won the game and in his play down the stretch. As Toronto’s defense showed the ability to lock down the Warriors on the perimeter, Curry did what any sixth-grade basketball coach would have advised — he started going to the basket.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIQHd-yEtWI
2019 NBA Finals: Raptors struggle in Game 2, lose to the Warriors 109-104 – Raptors HQ
Their defensive effort was counterbalanced by some abysmal shotmaking, as the Raptors, despite often generating quality looks, went nearly as cold as the Warriors in the back half of the quarter. Part way through the scoring deluge, the bad breaks the Raptors suffered to close the first half came back to haunt them, as Kyle Lowry fouled out of the game on a silly gamble for a backcourt steal. Fouling out would cap a disappointing night for the Raptors’ point guard, who would finish with 13 points, but only two assists and a team-worst -17 plus/minus.
The rut would end with just over a minute remaining as the Raptors caught a huge break of their own. With the Raptors down eight, Kawhi was fouled en route to the basket, and following the play Curry launched the ball skyward, in frustration with the call, an automatic technical foul. Leonard would drain each of the ensuing three free throws, making it 106-101, and suddenly the game felt winnable again. Seconds later, Draymond Green committed an out-of-bounds turnover, on a play that was initially ruled as Warriors ball, but was overturned by replay.
The subsequent Raptors’ offensive possession was chaos, as the Raptors missed a pair of shots, one a VanVleet three, and one a Kawhi floater, but secured the offensive board both times. Finally, Danny Green drained a three to bring the Raptors within two, but the time taken off the clock by the misses and offensive rebounds meant that there was only a three second difference between game and shot clock. The Raptors would need something of a miracle.
The Raptors scrambled defensively, nearly forcing a Warriors turnover on several occasions, but ultimately, the double teaming defense would see Andre Iguodala wide-open at the three point line. Iguodala, even with five seconds remaining on the Warriors shot clock, took the shot without hesitation, and drilled it to put the dagger in the Raptors.
And so, the series will head to Golden State tied 1-1. Losing this game feels like a gut punch to the Raptors’ momentum. Still, if there’s one positive to take away from it, the Raptors’ didn’t fold when the Warriors’ went on their dominating third quarter run. They fought back, and made it a game that went right down to the wire. They’ll need to show that same mental resilience in Oracle Arena when the series resumes Wednesday.
Several Warriors wounded in Game 2 | Toronto Sun
On any other night, the Raptors heading to the locker room at halftime with a five-point lead on the Golden State Warriors would be reason to celebrate.
On this night it was reason to worry.
As good as the Raptors were through a quarter and a half, this should have been a double-digit lead and everyone in the building, everyone on both benches seemed to know it.
The Warriors were looking fragile and quite frankly frail through much of that first half.
But the game seemed to change when Steph Curry came back from a hydration break midway through the second quarter.
Curry, who according to Doris Burke on the ESPN telecast wasn’t feeling very well, wound up scoring 12 points in the final four minutes and ensuring the Raptors wouldn’t put this game away before it got to the second half.
The first six minutes of the second half were an even tougher pill to swallow if you were a member of the Raptors or its fanbase.
The Warriors scored the first 18 points of the second half. Fred VanVleet finally ended the run with a three pointer 5:40 into the third but by that point the game had changed.
“Yeah, that was the big point in the game,” Kerr said. “I thought just staying in the game at the end of he second quarter was also important. I think we were down 12 most of the first half and the place was going nuts. We couldn’t score.
“Then Steph and Klay (Thompson) both got loose and the game loosened up a bit and we started to score. We weren’t exactly making stops but we cut the lead to five and we could kind of breathe at halftime.”
Nick Nurse wasn’t looking forward to the film of this one, particularly those first five minutes of the second half.
“Yeah, I’m going to have to re-watch that,” Nurse said. “I’m probably not going to enjoy that very much, but I’m going to have to check it out.”
Lewenberg: Raptors taking positives from Game 2 loss – Video – TSN
The Raptors surely had an opportunity to head to Oakland with a 2-0 lead but they learned that their room for error is very small against a great team like the Warriors. TSN Raptors reporter Josh Lewenberg discusses the mood within the Raptors’ room following their Game 2 defeat.
Warriors escape Toronto tied 1-1 with Raptors in NBA Finals | Toronto Sun
Though Leonard and an aggressive Serge Ibaka helped the Raptors chip away and keep the lead at eight after three, the Warriors did enough in the fourth to steal home-court advantage, despite losing Thompson to a hamstring injury. After Nick Nurse’s three-man bench had soundly outplayed Kerr’s seven-man group, Quinn Cook sprang to life in the fourth, nailing consecutive three-pointers to keep the Raptors at bay, earning kudos from Kerr afterward.
Leonard became just the ninth player with 12 30-point games in one playoff run and became the first player to hit all 16 free throws in a Finals game, but the Warriors became the first team in some time to solve Toronto’s lock-down defence. Golden State moved the ball spectacularly, more than doubling Toronto in assists, consistently beating the rotations.
But it all came down to that wretched beginning of the third quarter.
Danny Green said the team had been well aware of Golden State’s reputation as a great third-quarter team (only Milwaukee had been better in these playoffs), it just didn’t matter.
“I think just started too slow. You can’t do that against this team,” added Fred VanVleet, who finished with 17 points in 38 minutes.
“Missing every shot doesn’t help, whatever, 10 possessions in a row we didn’t score (nearly seven minutes of action). I’m not even sure. It didn’t feel like we were even getting in the paint to control the tempo or the flow of the game,” he said.
“So they jumped out on us and it was hard to get back set after that. You got to score against this team, I mean 21 points in the third quarter is not going to do it, and our offence has got to be better.”Golden State opted to start DeMarcus Cousins at centre in place of Jordan Bell and Cousins responded with seven points in the first half, but three fouls. Surprisingly, given his defensive reputation, Cousins was front and centre during the Warriors’ surge, grabbing every rebound in sight and moving the ball well and was a key.
Foul trouble was a bigger issue for the Raptors, since Kyle Lowry was playing extremely well before being forced to the bench after only 13 minutes. Lowry also had to play much of the fourth with five fouls, reining in his aggressiveness and he fouled out with nearly four minutes left in the game.
The Warriors had a large free throw attempt edge early before it evened out a bit.
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