Making their case on court
Team’s success could help persuade stars to give T.O. a shot
As showdowns go, it wasn’t, not really. The Toronto Raptors are merely the best team in the East right now; the Golden State Warriors are the two-time kings of the basketball world. Warriors guard Klay Thompson allowed this week that this game could be a preview of June, and maybe it will be. The Raptors have existed for two decades, and there has never been a better chance.
But the Warriors came in without the injured Steph Curry and Draymond Green, and they are still working through their family drama from two weeks ago, when Kevin Durant yelled at Green for not passing him the ball at the end of a game and Green replied: Why do you keep holding your free agency over our heads (expletive later revealed in the press)?
They’ve papered it over, but a good rule is this: If a married couple are arguing over taking out the garbage and one of them starts screaming about possible infidelity, there may be cracks in the marriage that can’t be fixed.
It still felt like a big game, because Thursday night on TNT is more or less the NBA’s Hockey Night In Canada, and the Raptors entered Thursday at 18-4 with potential for greatness. And the Warriors made sure it fit the description, anyway. The schedule has been relatively easy so far; it got harder in Memphis Tuesday, and this is the harder part. Good.
So the Raptors opened with a 32-14 run, and the Warriors reeled it all back, and Kawhi Leonard and Durant danced and duelled, and Durant was absurd: his turnaround off-the-dribble three over Kawhi with 8.6 seconds left gave him 47 and tied the game. Leonard should have fouled him, but didn’t. And Kawhi waited too long at the end, which forced OT.
But Toronto showed up in overtime and made enough plays. Just enough: Raptors 131, Warriors 128.
The Raptors are still finding their extra gears. Before the game Toronto coach Nick Nurse pointed to that Memphis game on defence, where the Raptors allowed 71 first-half points to a good but offensively limited team, and closed on a 65-31 run.
“That’s dominating the game against a really good team,” said Nurse. “Do I want us to play that way more often? Yes, but I’m trying to evaluate if that’s realistic or not. Yes is the answer, but …”
Escalation is the next step. The NBA is a carnival, but Golden State’s dominance has been so extreme with Durant that it makes everything else feel like it’s a distraction from the crushing certainty of the bigger picture; something to do while the Warriors blot out the sun. LeBron James brought Cleveland back from 3-1 and the Warriors added an MVP, and LeBron got crushed twice in the finals before he decided he would rather just live somewhere with a pool you can use all year round, where he can raise his kids in the sunshine.
The Raptors are what is left of the biggest dogs in the East, along with Milwaukee and Philly and whoever else. And with Leonard fitting in, and Pascal Siakam unlocking his electric potential — a career-high 26 points — and OG Anunoby’s quieter but significant potential still simmering, and with all their depth … well, Warriors coach Steve Kerr said the Raptors were playing better than anybody.
And beyond this season they are showcasing themselves to Leonard, of course, but also to any other wandering star who might be looking for somewhere you can really have a chance to win. What if Durant really does leave Golden State? He could go to the Knicks, I guess, if he likes the idea of basketball North Korea fused with capitalism. He could go to the Lakers, but why team up with LeBron if he really is tired of teaming with the team that beat him? Leonard is most often linked to the Clippers, who are playing over their heads right now. Brooklyn lurks, too.
But if you believe in the talent, what better place than Toronto? This wasn’t a finals preview in the real sense, where Toronto really found out how they match up to the champs. It was another challenge for the Raptors to further knit together, to become a team that can play up to the moments as they get bigger, and bigger, and bigger still.
That’s where the escalation comes in. Nurse says “we get a lot of (teams’) best shots,” but now the shots will start to get better. The Raptors went into this game 18-4 while still experimenting with combinations, while still learning how to play around Leonard, while still finding out what they really are. They’re good enough to win while doing that. But they can get better.
“We know things are different when we are playing one of the best teams in the league,” said Kerr.
That’s what they’re playing for every night, so Thursday was a showcase rather than a showdown. A star to Toronto used to be a punchline; Durant considered the Raptors for about five seconds the last time, as much as a favour to Tim Leiweke as anything, and LeBron never did. Leonard might leave at season’s end, and the Raptors might have to start looking for a star to come, again. But every night the Raptors get a chance to show why coming here isn’t a laughable idea anymore.