Leonard leads Raptors to first NBA finals
TORONTO — It was grumpily noted by certain observers that Toronto Raptors fans had lost their minds a little at various points this playoff season, like after The Shot in Game 7 of the second round, or after the win in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals and again after Game 5.
They were still quite some way from an NBA title, it was said, presumably with arms crossed and frown on face, and here were Raptors fans acting like a bunch of wild-eyed Drakes.
Act like you’ve been there before, et cetera.
And yet: they have never been here before.
On Saturday night the Raptors delivered a thrilling, rollicking 100-94 win to send them to their first NBA Finals: a roaring comeback in front of a packed house, 19,800 people standing in red shirts and going some kind of wild.
Down for almost the whole of the game, and trailing by 15 late in the third quarter, the Raptors went on a 26-3 run, capped by a thunderous Kawhi Leonard dunk over Giannis Antetokounmpo — yes, over him — to seize a fourth-quarter lead after trailing for almost the whole of the game.
“It was great,” said Leonard of the dunk that came as Kyle Lowry pushed the ball up the floor after a Leonard steal. “We were on a run, and the building exploded after that dunk.”
“Let the big dog eat,” Lowry, sitting next to the Eastern Conference trophy after the game, said of the decision to pass off to Leonard on the break.
The Bucks had one more push in them, but it was Leonard, again, with a corner three that bounced favourably, again, off the front iron for a bucket that gave the Raptors a late five-point lead. He had missed his first seven attempts from beyond the arc, but this one staggered off the rim and fell through.
“It was a bounce of the ball, and we needed a bounce of the ball,” said Toronto coach Nick Nurse. For a team with so many scarring playoff losses, the bounces have been awfully favourable in recent weeks.
That Leonard seems to have a magician’s touch on late corner threes was unexpected, but it is just part of his remarkable range of skills. He finished Game 6 with 27 points, 17 rebounds, seven assists, two steals and two blocks.
An agonizing couple of minutes followed, but Toronto’s swarming late defence kept Milwaukee from getting good shots. It has become a surprising part of this team’s playoff identity: stifling defence that is capable of getting the Raptors back into games by utterly shutting down the opposing team’s best scorers.
Nurse said that his team has been ramping up the defensive effort ever since they took a punch to the gut in a Game 1 loss to the Orlando Magic in the first round. That was when the moment when they realized they needed to step it up, he said.
“There are some stretches where it’s darned hard to complete a pass against us,” Nurse said. “That wears into a team after a while, when you’re up into them and you’re denying (them the ball) and everybody is that connected and playing that hard.”
Before the final buzzer sounded, with Leonard icing the game at the free throw line after an insane offensive rebound, Lowry clenched both fists and looked to the rafters. They were actually doing this.
The biggest win in franchise history, which for the Raptors has become an every-other-day occurrence.
There was a spontaneous street party outside the arena after the game, and probably a lot more of that to come before the Golden State Warriors come to town for Game 1 of the Finals on Thursday.