HOLDING COURT ON THE NBA FINALS
Postmedia writers Steve Simmons, Scott Stinson, Mike Ganter and Ryan Wolstat take part in a shootaround on the Toronto Raptors’ first finals appearance, which kicks off Thursday against the Golden State Warriors.
It is so close, and yet it doesn’t feel real.
Are the Raptors really playing for the NBA championship?
Are they really playing the generational Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals?
Is this actually happening, here, in Toronto of all places, the place where champions come to die?
Thursday night is Game 1 of the best-of-seven series. You can stop and read that sentence over and over again and then pause. It’s still from the museum of the hard to believe. These are the Raptors, the team best known for losing players and coming unglued at playoff time.
And now this remarkable season, with the Kawhi Leonard story so well documented, with the late-season trade for Marc Gasol, with the emotional departures of the popular DeMar DeRozan and the almost-as-popular Jonas Valanciunas, with the Game 7 shot against Philadelphia, with the amazing four straight wins against the Milwaukee Bucks. So much happening so quickly.
Normally we watch the genius Steph Curry on TV. And we admire Steve Kerr from afar. And we see the real freak of the NBA, Kevin Durant, doing what no one his size has ever done before. And we see the quickness with which Klay Thompson shoots and the intelligence Draymond Green plays with, and you ask yourself, how is this possible? How can the Raptors expect to beat them?
SCOTT STINSON
It does seem kind of crazy when you start considering the matchups.
Curry is a two-time MVP, Thompson is one of the best shooters in history, Green is playing out of his mind and even Andre Iguodala is a Finals MVP. And even if the Raptors play well in Game 1, Kevin Durant might show up. Best scorer in the world, no big deal.
So, I’m not sure the Raptors “expect” to win, but they certainly believe they can.
It starts with Leonard, who has been playing historically well on the offensive end and doing the unimaginable on the defensive end, shutting down presumptive MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo last series. As has been pointed out often in recent days, he gave Golden State nightmares the last time he met them in the playoffs, in 2017, before going out with an injury. He’s the key, obviously, but my question is, which other Raptors would be most important if Toronto is going to make this a series?
MIKE GANTER
I believe the two-foot putt here would be Kyle Lowry, so I’m going to go a little further afield and suggest Marc Gasol will be that guy next to Leonard who will be most important if Toronto is to win this series.
It’s not a coincidence that every time Gasol has struggled in a game, the Raptors have experienced their worst losses. He was limited in Game 3 against Philadelphia because of early foul trouble and was basically ineffective in a blowout win by the Sixers. He rebounded strongly in Game 4 and the Raptors got right back in the series. Again in the first two games against Milwaukee he struggled before setting the defensive tone the Raptors would ride to four straight wins.
If Toronto is going to win this series, their defence, which has carried them through tough series wins against Philadelphia and Milwaukee, is going to have to be on point every possession. Gasol is the linchpin that keeps that defence on a string. He’s the man in the back row shouting out screens, ensuring all five Raptors are switching when they need to switch and recovering to whom they need to recover to. When he’s on, the Raptors are on and they need to be on 48 minutes a night from here on out.
Offensively, Gasol is not going to fill the scoresheet, but when he’s a threat to shoot the ball and has to be accounted for, he makes Toronto’s offence better.
Which is all a long-winded way of saying when Gasol is impactful, the Raptors are at their very best. Now, obviously, the Warriors are going to have something to say about that and obviously Steph Curry, particularly with Kevin Durant out for Game 1, is going to be a focus. But if Curry is No. 1 on the Raptors’ list of priorities, who gets that next level of attention?
RYAN WOLSTAT
With no Durant it has to be Klay Thompson. Serge Ibaka still has nightmares of the 11 three-pointers Klay hit on Ibaka’s Thunder back in the day, and he hit an NBA-record 14 threes against Chicago early this season. He has also hit 11 in a regular-season game and needs only a tiny bit of space to get shots off. The Splash Brothers have great chemistry and are both forces to be reckoned with.
Thompson might not get the accolades of some of his teammates, but he’s one of the great offensive forces in basketball (he’s one of only a handful of players to score 60 points in a game). He can heat up as quickly as anyone and is the ultimate safety valve.
I’d like to nominate another player, though not for the work he does on the offensive end.
Draymond Green is about as good as it gets on defence, especially in the playoffs, where he ramps up his game a few levels.
Green has been defensive player of the year and has twice finished second, behind Leonard. Steve Kerr said Wednesday that Green’s playing at his best level and that’s something Leonard, or whoever else will be facing Green, will have to think about.
Now, how does Kevin Durant’s availability, or lack thereof, impact how Toronto prepares for the Warriors?
SIMMONS
Durant changes everything for both teams.
He is an outlier, more than most basketball players are outliers. He is a big man with the skills of a small man. If he plays, even on one good leg, the challenges increase significantly for the Raptors.
Needless to say, the Raptors have to focus big-time on Curry and big-time on Thompson and after that, they’ll have to worry about offence coming from Green and Andre Iguodala, who should have been a Raptor years ago.
But if they have to focus on Durant as well, great as the Warriors have played without him, the math doesn’t necessarily add up for Toronto.
Maybe Leonard plays Curry 1-on-1 before he gets help. Maybe Danny Green plays Thompson. Those are decent matchups for the Raptors, if there are ever decent matchups against Curry and Thompson.
But what happens if Leonard has to play Durant, then maybe Lowry on Curry and Green on Thompson, which probably benefits the Warriors.
This is where Marc Gasol can figure in for Toronto. If DeMarcus Cousins doesn’t play for Golden State, then Gasol may not face the kind of players he did in the two previous rounds where he matched up against Joel Embiid and Brook Lopez.
Maybe I’m crazy, but I think if the Raptors can split the two games at home, they can make this a series. A long series. They have enough options, offensively and defensively. Believe it.
STINSON
It’s certainly possible. If we have learned anything in this playoff run, it’s that one Raptors game doesn’t help at all in predicting the next.
The secret weapon here could be Golden State’s odd chemistry. They have been terrifying without Durant and Cousins, so what happens if those guys return and it disrupts the run they have been on? Maybe that’s what the Raptors need: an intra-Warriors shouting match.
GANTER
Based on what we’ve been hearing from coach Steve Kerr, Cousins is the closer of the two to returning, but Kerr does not seem in any hurry to get him in there. He suggested Wednesday that were it the regular season, he’d have him back in for Game 1 but isn’t prepared to do that at this stage in the season.
As for Durant, you get the feeling Kerr is preparing for the worst, as in no return at all. When he speaks about a Durant return he sounds almost pessimistic.
I think there’s a very good chance we don’t see either. If that’s the case, does that change your outlook about the series?
WOLSTAT
It certainly does for me. As well as Golden State has been playing, sans Durant, I’d pick the Raptors.
Cousins isn’t as big a factor. I think he’ll hurt the Warriors more than help (Kevon Looney has been great, while Cousins will be rusty and can’t defend the Raptors).
There’s also the distraction factor of everybody waiting for those superstars to play and wondering: will they or won’t they?
But I do think Durant will return once things shift to California and Cousins could well be given some minutes early in Game 2 just to see what he can do.