Lowry has grown-up and in control of everything | Raptors in drivers seat | Janky or not, the Raptors can defend
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Fred VanVleet has to be exhausted.
It’s pretty clear at this point that VanVleet is by far the team’s most trusted Curry defender, and without the offensive firepower while shorthanded to punish the Raptors for having multiple guards on the floor, the Warriors don’t have an obvious recourse. Nick Nurse rolled with his starters fairly deep into the first quarter, but that was about the only reprieve VanVleet saw from chasing Steph Curry around for a third consecutive game.
VanVleet checked in with 4:24 to play in the first and stayed in until 9:59 of the second. I thought maybe the Raptors would rest VanVleet at the top of the second with Curry sitting, in part because VanVleet had two fouls and in part because it probably makes sense to keep him fresh for that assignment with a breather. Nurse opted to split that Curry-less time, getting some time with and without VanVleet. He also sat the final 4:20 of the first half despite Danny Green being in foul trouble, necessitating Norman Powell minutes.
The second half offered no reprieves. Nurse opted to start VanVleet over Green despite Green shooting well in the first half, preferring to optimize the Curry matchup rather than the offensive side. Something like that is always a minor gamble for flow and chemistry reasons, and Green hadn’t come off the bench all year. The process there is sound enough, especially with no Klay Thompson, Green’s preferred matchup in the series. VanVleet played the entire second half alongside Curry until the benches emptied late.
All told, VanVleet played 33 minutes, 31 of them against Curry. Curry scored 27 points in those 31 minutes and 20 in just 13 minutes with him off. For the series, Curry’s true-shooting percentage is 22 percentage points worse with VanVleet on the floor on more or less the same usage, and the Warriors have been outscored in those minutes. The Warriors play faster with Curry when VanVleet isn’t out there, and Curry’s been able to do much more damage against Kyle Lowry, Danny Green and other Raptors defenders.
Now, Curry scored 27 points against VanVleet, so it’s not as if he has been some mythical Curry stopper. He has made life tough, though, playing him physical and chasing him well off screens and limiting the instances in which the Raptors feel they have to switch to contain him. Whether the strict tethering continues for Game 4 might come down to the availability of other Warriors, but it’s been a solid move for the series to date, one VanVleet and Nurse deserve credit for.
The Raptors Tip The Finals With Their Own Strength In Numbers | FiveThirtyEight
The Warriors fell largely because Toronto got whatever it wanted on offense for the entire game. Golden State yielded 123 points to the Raptors — the most it has allowed in any NBA Finals game at Oracle Arena under Steve Kerr. All five of Toronto’s starters scored at least 17 points, and they combined for an incredible 106 points on just 70 shot attempts. The Raptors all together connected on 43 of 82 shots from the field, 17 of 38 from beyond the arc and 20 of 21 from the free-throw line, recording just the 42nd 50-40-90 game2 in NBA playoff history and only the third in the history of the finals.
Their offense was in blitzkrieg mode right from the jump. Toronto scored 15 points in the first four and a half minutes of the game and eventually totaled 36 in the first quarter. They ended up scoring 1.44 points per possession in the opening period — the most efficient quarter either team has had during the series. The Raptors’ only blemish was a five-minute stretch in the second quarter where they turned the ball over three times and shot 0 of 6 from the field. Otherwise, they were practically unstoppable. Toronto even scored a completely absurd 1.59 points per possession on tries that began after a made Warriors basket.
It was a total group effort — the kind of “Strength in Numbers” victory the Warriors themselves love to claim. Kawhi Leonard, while clearly still playing at least somewhat hobbled, nevertheless continued his metronomic consistency. Leonard finished with 30 points, seven rebounds, six assists, two steals and two blocks, and he paraded to the free-throw line nearly at will.
Danny Green — who is now officially out of the shooting slump that plagued him throughout the Eastern Conference finals after apparently getting some shooting advice from Shaquille O’Neal, of all people — nailed three 3-pointers during the aforementioned first quarter, giving him multiple triples in all three games of the series. Though Raptors coach Nick Nurse chose to start Fred VanVleet over Green after halftime to keep his best Steph stopper on the floor, Green ended up nailing another three treys after the break.
After a Game 2 in which he largely struggled near the rim, Pascal Siakam connected on 7 of 12 shots from inside the paint. Siakam tallied six assists as well and was a game-high plus-22, marking the third time during Toronto’s 21-game playoff run where the Raptors have outscored their opponent by at least 20 points with Siakam on the floor. Kyle Lowry played perhaps his most complete game of the playoffs, pouring in 23 points while dishing out nine assists.
The starters were not the only Raptors in double figures. VanVleet, still piping-hot since the birth of his son, scored 11 points and made three 3-pointers — including an utterly ridiculous shot-clock-buzzer-beating circus shot while falling down that pushed the Raptors’ lead to 13 points with less than two minutes remaining and sparked the beginning of garbage time.
If Thompson immediately stands in the way of the Raptors’ title chances, then Durant looms over them, his presence an X-factor that would change everything about this series. Durant won’t play in Game 4, with Kerr saying that he is hopeful the star will participate in on-court work with his teammates between Friday and Monday’s Game 5, which would give him a chance to play in Toronto.
In a way, Durant playing would simplify things for the Raptors. It is likely that Nurse would stick Leonard on Durant — in the one regular season meeting in which the two played, Leonard was the primary defender on Durant in 46 of 85 possessions, although Curry and Draymond Green both missed that game — for the vast majority of the Warriors’ time with the ball. That means that either the Raptors would have to rely on switching less often, or live with the deadlier results. There could be less selling out to slow down Curry in pick-and-rolls with Green.
Of course, it would also open up the option for Kerr to use lineups with Green at centre, forcing Nurse to try to live with one of his centres on Green or Iguodala — and making the team less switchable in the process — or using Pascal Siakam at centre, ensuring the Raptors coach has to give more minutes to less trustworthy players.
“He’ll come back and draw a lot of attention because no coach is going to be like, ‘Oh, he’s coming off injury, let’s see if he’s not quite Kevin Durant,’” Green said. “Like, you’re just not going to take that chance. … He’s way better than a lot of people when he’s a hundred percent. So if he’s 75 percent, he’ll still probably be better than a lot of people.”
Given all of the factors in play, including who will ultimately make the decision about whether he plays and Durant’s pending free agency, make his return date difficult to return. He has already missed more time than most observers thought, while others are confident he won’t play again this year. That very fact makes it exceedingly hard to say what the Raptors leading this series 2-1 means, other than it being better for them than the reverse scenario.
The Raptors aren’t afraid to ‘let it rip,’ and they’re not afraid of the defending champs – ESPN
In fact, in the wake of their 123-109 Game 3 victory in one of the most intimidating buildings in the NBA, the Raptors might be in the process of crafting some promising genetic coding of their own.
“That’s true,” said Serge Ibaka, who blocked six shots in the game and knocked down a monster wing jumper with 10 minutes to play. “We are working on our own DNA, and it’s defense. There are some nights when you’ll make all your shots, but it won’t happen every night. One thing for sure that we can do is defend.”
No one had to explain to the Raptors what was at stake. Kevon Looney is out for the rest of the series. Klay Thompson was a very late scratch because of a balky hamstring. Kevin Durant missed his eighth consecutive game because of a strained calf. For Toronto, there was no option but to win. Lose the game, and it would be a death knell for a team that is on this grand stage for the first time and must take advantage.
The Raptors had to grab this one and take a 2-1 series lead, especially with Durant lurking in the shadows, plotting his return. In preparation, someone wrote a simple message on Toronto’s white board just before tipoff: “Let it rip.”
“That was the plan,” said veteran Kyle Lowry, who hit some of the biggest shots of his career down the stretch of this game. “Stay cool. Stay calm. Don’t let them affect what we do.”
What the Raptors did in the opening minutes was attack starting center DeMarcus Cousins in the paint, repeatedly feeding Marc Gasol in the post as if he were a reincarnation of Shaquille O’Neal. Gasol took as many shots (seven) in the opening quarter Wednesday as he did in all of Game 2. The Raptors also looked to unleash the lively Pascal Siakam in and around the key, where he is most effective. By the two-minute mark of the first quarter, the visitors’ lead was 10, and Thompson was chained to the bench, his warm-ups zipped tight. He slumped forward, his angst palatable.
Kyle Lowry Let It Rip, and the Raptors Are Two Wins From a Ring – The Ringer
When Lowry’s at his best, he’s not waiting for that confidence to bloom or for inspiration to strike. He’s actively manufacturing it, getting his hands on the ball as quickly as possible—grabbing a rebound, stealing it from you, taking an outlet feed, accepting an inbounds pass, whatever, he’s not picky, just give him the friggin’ ball—and either looking for a hit-ahead pass that can set up a teammate with an advantage or sprinting into the frontcourt to create one himself. Nurse likes to preach pace, the value of playing faster, both in transition and in half-court sets. Lowry is his most zealous adherent, his most fervent believer in the gospel of go.
“All year, that’s why I love playing with the guy so much,” Danny Green told reporters after Game 3, in which he scored 18 points on 6-for-10 shooting from beyond the arc. “Because [Lowry is] a big reason why I get so many looks, him and Pascal. Him being the quarterback and Pascal being the wide receiver, and he’s throwing that ball ahead, and the defense collapses, it’s kick-out, open looks for me.”
When Lowry’s moved by the spirit, the whole team seems to move with him. The ball movement becomes infectious—Toronto logged 30 assists on 43 made field goals in Game 3, its fifth-best assist rate of the playoffs—and the Raptor offense suddenly begins to generate a deluge of deep buckets. With Lowry and Kawhi Leonard at the controls, Toronto picked apart a short-handed and nowhere-near-good-enough Warriors defense on Wednesday, drilling 17 of 38 3-pointers to earn a tie for the most 3s ever by a visiting team in the NBA Finals—a mark held by, you guessed it, the Warriors.
“He was great tonight, just controlling the pace and also finding his shots and looking to score,” Siakam said. “When he does both of those things and also the hustle plays on defense, I think that’s the whole package for Kyle. Having him on the squad is definitely something that we cherish. He’s our floor general.”
He’s also one of the league’s best. It wouldn’t be quite right to say that Lowry’s slept on; five straight All-Star berths and a $100 million contract suggest that plenty of people have recognized his value.
Lowry oozes their same qualities, the ones that make Philly Philly — determination and tenacity. Let down by his absentee father, he shut the door and concentrated on the people who were there for him — his grandmother, fierce mother and older brother. Small by traditional standards, he simply played harder than everyone else, and borne of the tough streets of North Philly, he snubbed his nose at the naysayers, making his way on a college campus parked on the tony Main Line. A kid once labeled a handful has become a first-round draft pick, an All Star five times over, an Olympic gold medalist, and an NBA elder statesman. Now he is not merely trying to win an NBA Championship, but change the landscape of the league while carrying the hopes of his adopted country and #WeTheNorth mantra along with him.
As far as his mother knows (Lowry himself is in a bunker, concentrating on the Finals and preferred not to talk), Lowry knows nothing of the history of his house. Hollaway only knew dribs and drabs of it, from stories older family members used to tell. She moved out once Lowry was drafted, her son helping her to relocate to a nice suburb. She knows a few families there still but the neighborhood, like much of the city, has changed and not necessarily for the better, the ballpark’s demise adding to the area’s decay. “It’s a shame, really,’’ she says. “It was a great neighborhood once.’’
Hollaway chuckled when I first called her to talk about this story, straining to see the connection between a piece of 90-year-old steeped in baseball and her hoops-playing son. It is, admittedly, quirky, at first blush nothing more than a funky coincidence of sports history collecting inside one tiny row home.
But if you know the bleacher story and if you know Lowry, there’s good reason to add one of those markers outside of 2713 North 20th Street. The place is vintage Philly, home to people who were determined to find a way to climb to the top and enjoy the view.
Reformed hothead Lowry shows mettle in Game 3 run-in with Stevens – Sportsnet.ca
Lowry said he was initially furious and the likes of teammates Marc Gasol and Danny Green helped calm him down. But his good sense after Stevens shoved him and swore at him for no reason was born of choices he’s made long before that moment.
“Understanding that at the moment my team needed me,” said Lowry on Thursday. “Understanding that there are plenty of fans and kids in the world watching this game. Me being a grown man, having kids myself. I’m a grown man and my kids could always go back and see that.
“If it wasn’t in this situation, things may have been — they probably would have been done differently, handled differently by me. But understanding that I have two young children and being able to hold myself to a certain standard … that’s a big thing for me, being a guy that upholds himself to a high standard. Never letting guys like him get under your skin because that’s bullcrap.”
And this isn’t a case where an apology and a well-placed charitable donation will make everything go away. The clip will live in YouTube forever, a Google search of Stevens will always connect the USC and Harvard-educated venture capitalist with a few seconds of his life he’ll always regret. Lowry has no interest in letting him off the hook.
“I don’t know him. I don’t care to know him,” Lowry said when asked if Stevens had attempted to reach out to him in the aftermath. “He showed his true colours at the time. And you show what you’re really about in that time and at that moment. And it’s not, oh, you get the reaction of everyone else saying this, that and the other, that’s kind of the whole — I mean, no, you showed what you really are.”
The issue belongs to the NBA now. They along with the Warriors have suspended Stevens for a year and fined him $500,000.
It could well be that’s simply a precursor to something more – it’s easy to imagine the league working behind the scenes to facilitate the sale of Stevens’ stake in the team.
“I don’t know him. I don’t care to know him. He showed his true colours at the time … at that moment, in the heat of the moment, when the pressure and the tightness is on you, you show who you really are.”
“Well, the climate we’re in now, nobody’s really afraid to express themselves,” Warriors forward Andre Iguodala said. “Whether it be through their beliefs, whatever that is. There’s incentives to be brave with who you truly are.” When asked what he meant by brave, he said, “I mean, people aren’t afraid to be who they are. Just have to pay attention to the news.”
Iguodala alluded to YouTube’s recent crackdown on hate speech on its platform, and when asked about Bill Russell in the 1950s and 1960s, he said, “The climate is not how it was back then. You could be really brave back then. It was (more), ‘get in line.’ They felt more superior.”
In a league where the line between fans and players is an active concern, it will be hard to argue that allowing an owner who had done this to a player to stay in the league would send the wrong message, especially from a progressive flagship operation like the Warriors.
And underneath all the noise was a series filled with its own chaos. Warriors star Klay Thompson was declared to be back after missing Game 3 with a strained left hamstring; Kevin Durant, however, was ruled out for yet another game with his strained right calf, and hasn’t even scrimmaged with other players yet. Backup centre Kevon Looney is seeking a second opinion after Kawhi essentially fractured his collarbone. ESPN reported he hoped to return in the series.
It was a lot, but if you wanted to see Stevens as a metaphor, he could serve as one more: The Warriors are not in control, and they know it. They have owned basketball since signing Durant in 2016; they are not used to being pushed like this.
But the Raptors have been the better team for 10 or 11 of the 12 quarters in the series. They are largely staying cool; they are, for now, in control. Game 4 will twist this series back one way, or pull it further in the other. What did Lowry say? In the heat of the moment, when the pressure and the tightness is on you, you show who you really are. The Raptors have done it, to this point. Two wins to go.
GSW investor banned 1 year after shoving Lowry – ESPN
“He’s not a good look for the ownership group they have,” Lowry said before the ban was announced. “… A guy like that, showing his true class, he shouldn’t be a part of our league. There’s just no place for that.”
Said Lowry later: “I was furious, I’m not going to lie.”
Stevens apologized in a statement released Thursday night and said he fully accepted the punishment from the league and the Warriors.
“I take full responsibility for my actions last night at the NBA Finals and am embarrassed by what transpired,” he said. “What I did was wrong and there is no excuse for it. Mr. Lowry deserves better, and I have reached out today in an attempt to directly apologize to him and other members of the Raptors and Warriors organizations. I’m grateful to those who accepted my calls. I hope that Mr. Lowry and others impacted by this lapse in judgement understand that the behavior I demonstrated last night does not reflect the person I am or have been throughout my life. I made a mistake and I’m truly sorry. I need to be better and look forward to making it right. I fully accept the punishment administered by the NBA and the Warriors.”
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said that immediately after the incident, league investigators spoke with both Warriors and NBA security, interviewed Stevens to get his side of the story, collected all the video, interviewed some of the people who were sitting nearby and spoke with Lowry after the game.
After gathering facts, Silver said, the ultimate decision came through discussions between the league office and the Warriors.
When asked why Stevens had not received a lifetime ban, Silver said: “I think we recognize that it’s not a science in terms of making these decisions. Ultimately, we felt that given how contrite Mr. Stevens was, the fact that he was extraordinarily apologetic, the fact that he had no blemishes on his prior involvement with the NBA or the Warriors, that a one-year ban seemed appropriate together with the fine.
“But he made a mistake in my mind and paid a very large price for it.”
It wasn’t just that Lowry was shoved, he also claimed that Stevens cursed him. The NBA is looking into the matter, CBS Sports reports. The Warriors have decided that they aren’t waiting for the NBA to come down with a decision and announced that Stevens won’t attend any more games for the remainder of the Finals until he learns to keep his damn hands to himself.
This could’ve really turned out bad had Lowry responded, and I can’t make that point enough. But the bigger picture is that at most, an NBA minority owner pushed an opposing team’s player and got suspended for a few games. He will be back in the front row next season, as soon as the season opens because the white guy who pushed Kyle Lowry is rich—richer than Lowry. Mark Stevens is a damn billionaire.
VanVleet emptying tank with Raptors in striking distance of NBA title – TSN.ca
While Green has had some success, VanVleet has challenged Curry over a significantly larger sample size. In fact, his defence on Curry has been among the very best in the NBA this year.
Of the 11 players that have guarded Curry for at least 100 possessions over the regular season and playoffs, only two – Chris Paul and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope – have given up fewer points per possession than VanVleet. Including the one regular season meeting they faced off – the Raptors’ Dec. 12 win at Golden State – Curry has scored just 28 points on 140 possessions against VanVleet.
“There are guys in this league that are very hard to guard; he’s one of them,” VanVleet said. “He’s an elite offensive player and one of the top players of all time.”
Many have made the connection between the birth of VanVleet’s son and his inspired play, and why not? It’s a fun story, even if it’s a bit of a reach. VanVleet mostly laughs it off.
“I wish I could go back in time and not tell anyone that I had a kid so I could get all the glory for turning around my performance,” he joked.
There actually might be something to it. When you’re in a slump, even for a player with VanVleet’s self-confidence, it weighs on you. It’s in your head. It’s something you think about. Perhaps having his first son and his second child in less than two years helped take his mind off basketball.
“Becoming a parent has been the greatest thing that’s happened to me in my 25 years,” he said. “To two [kids] under [the age of] two has been an experience, to say the least, and it just gives you perspective on life. I think that I had a great perspective regardless before I had kids, but to have two young ones that kind of washes away everything else that’s going on. When I come home they don’t care about what happened – 0-for-7, or we lost, or [I scored] 25 points. My daughter doesn’t care – she’s crying, she wants to cry. The newborn definitely doesn’t give a damn about anything other than eating and sleeping and pooping.”
The more likely explanation is that VanVleet is a good, smart basketball player who works and plays hard and it was only a matter of time before the on-court product reflected that again.
Why are the Raptors so calm with title in sight? ‘The job isn’t done’ | Toronto Sun
“I witnessed something very scary tonight after the game! Toronto were walking back to their locker room after the game and nobody was celebrating and they weren’t smiling or nothing! They boys want the smoke! Take it from a former Champ!!!” Perkins tweeted.
Having been to a bunch of Finals before, this corner noted it too. Why were they so calm while a whole country (and quite a few Raptors fans, who were singing ‘O Canada’ and dancing in the aisles at Oracle Arena) was losing its mind because of the result?
“I mean the job isn’t done, you know? We’ve still got two more wins to get and now we’re focussed on that, one game at a time,” Norman Powell told the Toronto Sun.
“We’re not happy after one win, or two wins, there’s a job to do and everyone is focussed and locked at that.”
It’s just not in Leonard, Marc Gasol, Danny Green, Fred VanVleet or Kyle Lowry’s nature to get carried away (another player might have handled Lowry’s incident with a Warriors minority owner far differently, for example) and that attitude trickles down by osmosis to the entire roster.
“We all know what we’re trying to do, we know the main goal. The vets do a great job of communicating that,” Powell said.
“Kawhi, that was the first thing he said: ‘We didn’t come here to get one. We came here to get two and (Leonard told his teammates) to rest up, get everything you need to get ready for Game 4. It’s a quick turnaround.’ And we’ve all had that same mindset.
“We came in here to handle business and we’re focussed on that. We did what we’re supposed to do, get the first game on the road, and we want to have that same energy and intensity that we had in Game 3 and carry it over to Game 4. We’ve still got two more wins to get. We’re not happy with this, we’re not satisfied,” Powell said.
The Raptors defence isn’t resting, and it has Toronto two wins from an NBA title | The Star
Not that winning Friday’s Game 4 is a given. Warriors all-star Klay Thompson, who missed Game 3 with a hamstring injury, is expected to be back in the lineup. Kevin Durant, meanwhile, has already been ruled out with a calf injury that, more and more, threatens to completely remove him from the Finals. And the Warriors don’t figure to go down easily.
Still, if you’re Raptors coach Nick Nurse you have to feel good about your defensive options against anything the Warriors can throw your way. The Raptors have seized control of some key matchups in this series. Game 3, for instance, saw Marc Gasol wholly neutralize the threat of DeMarcus Cousins emerging as a bona fide scorer for a Warriors team in desperate need of efficient production from someone not named Curry. It saw Pascal Siakam do another bang-up job on Draymond Green, who went 2-for-7 from the field and scored four points with Siakam as his shadow.
And as much as Curry went off for a big number, it could have been worse for Toronto had Nurse not made the savvy move of attaching Fred VanVleet to Curry to begin the second half. Kyle Lowry had himself a great offensive game on Wednesday night. But guarding Curry, as Lowry did to begin Game 3, isn’t an ideal matchup. In the 47 possessions in which Lowry has been Curry’s primary defender during the series, Curry has made 59 per cent of his field-goal attempts and gone 6-for-10 from three-point range. Those are scary percentages that can’t persist.
But with VanVleet as his designated check, those percentages dip considerably. Curry has been roughly half as productive with VanVleet on his hip than with Lowry chasing him around. Which is to say: It’s possible the Raptors, in three games, have established viable ways to mitigate the bulk of the Warrior threat. After using a rare box-and-one on Curry in Game 2 — a defence Curry derided as “janky” — the Raptors found new ways to stymie their foes in Game 3.
“There (was) nothing janky about (Toronto’s defence in Game 3), let’s put it that way,” Curry said. “It was — I mean, they showed bodies, they threw different guys at me. I was just a little bit more aggressive, trying to look for shots. But I assume there’s going to be subtle adjustments, trying to get the ball out of my hands earlier in the possession. But there are things that I can do to counteract that and still make an impact on that end of the floor.”
The Toronto Raptors Won But NBA Finals Chaos Still Reigns – Deadspin
In showing themselves at their best, and not just Kawhi Leonard and Fred VanVleet but the rest of the membership as well, Toronto makes this a potential great series in an event that hasn’t had one in awhile. Kyle Lowry, painfully deficient in the first two games, stood out like a purple fence in front of an orange house Wednesday night. Serge Ibaka shaved four years off his birth certificate even after you deduct the two goaltends that were called blocked shots. Danny Green was a polar opposite of the Danny Green we’ve seen. Pascal Siakam’s Game 3 fit nicely between his amazing Game 1 and his miserable Game 2. Nick Nurse not only reduced his bench by one (Norman Powell) and made greater use of the sum of the remaining parts, he cemented his place as the coach who does the best Rick Adelman face since, well, Rick Adelman.
Toronto clearly deserved to win, and with ease. And they did. Justice was done.
As for Golden State, its weaknesses (after the gaudy brilliance of Curry) amid the absences of Thompson, Durant, and Kevon Looney were laid bare for all to see. Draymond Green failed to be two people, Andre Iguodala was standard Andre Iguodala, and the rest of the membership were rendered largely and deservedly inert. This was most notable in the case of DeMarcus Cousins, the Warriors’ 2019 X factor who was made into a glaring weakness by Toronto’s speed and length and played nine fewer minutes than in his previous game because he was such a liability.
Golden State clearly deserved to lose, and were forced to deal with that reality almost from the start. Justice was done a second time.
But what Warrior fans did get was additional proof that Curry is truly a generational player of the first magnitude, and the right to tell with total justification those who do not agree that they should drink a volcanic lake. And they also got the “We still have Thompson and Durant coming” rhetorical shield which up until Wednesday seemed like the cards that win all the hands.
Now? We’re not so sure. Presuming Thompson and maybe even Durant play Friday, we will get the clearest picture yet of the teams’ relative strengths—four games into the series. This is going to be the grindy Final that we have been promised but haven’t gotten during the Warrior run, and whoever wins, we get paid. Mere rooting for one team is, well, so 2016.
Knicks confident they’ll get meeting with Kawhi Leonard – New York Post
According to NBA sources, Knicks president Steve Mills and general manager Scott Perry expect to get a meeting with Raptors star Kawhi Leonard and at least have a puncher’s chance despite all the Kevin Durant hoopla.
With reports Kyrie Irving is eyeing the Lakers and Nets — who opened up a second max salary spot with Thursday’s trade of Allen Crabbe — more strongly than the Knicks, a domino effect could take place in which KD may not want to come alone. Durant does not know Leonard well and they play the same position.
That tandem may be possible because Leonard’s max contract would be similar to Irving’s because of their identical service time. The Knicks still feel they can be in the ballgame for Leonard, who is two wins away from winning his second NBA championship and equaling Durant’s ring total.
Leonard, though he looks to be playing at less than 100 percent after aggravating his knee in the Eastern Conference Finals against Milwaukee, could be an even better fit than Durant, who has yet to play the past month because of a partially torn calf muscle.
James Hinchcliffe puts in bid to keep Kawhi Leonard with Raptors – MotorSportsTalk
“They started this whole campaign at home about keeping Kawhi in town,” Hinchcliffe told NBCSports.com. “There are talks he might be going somewhere. That has always been our big Achilles’ heel as a team. We get these talented players and they only stay for a couple years until they get picked up by a more established club.
“A lot of people are trying to keep Kawhi with the Raps. There are restaurants in Toronto promising free food for life. Free services here, there, wherever.”
And what is Hinchcliffe offering the NBA All-Star?
“I was going to offer that I’ll put a picture on my helmet and offer him two free passes to any IndyCar race I’m competing in for the rest of my career if he stays put.”
Despite the fact Hinchcliffe spends most of his time in Indianapolis, he remains a loyal Raptors fan.
“Like all Toronto sports, when I moved to Indianapolis, it was so much harder to follow them,” Hinchcliffe said. “I was able to stay in touch with the Raptors when they came to town and played the Indiana Pacers. I have to admit, I have been to more Pacers games the last five years that I have Raptors games – by opportunity, not by choice.
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