Raptors pull out a win in game they had to have
Lowry, Green, Gasol all step up as Toronto keeps wounded Warriors in check
It was the game the Raptors had to have and they did everything possible to make sure it happened.
The Raptors needed more from Kyle Lowry. They got it with 23 points, nine assists and five rebounds.
They needed more from Danny Green. They got that. Green looked like his old self, hitting 6-of-10 from beyond the arc.
They needed more from Marc Gasol and they got that too with 17 points.
The Warriors had a 5-4 lead at the earliest stages of the game and never led again.
The 123-109 final was as dominant a win as we have seen in the series.
It was the Warriors’ first loss at Oracle since April 24 when the Los Angeles Clippers got them in Game 5. Since then the Warriors had won five in a row.
Already down Kevin Durant in the series, the Warriors came into this one knowing they were going to be without often overlooked Kevon Looney and potentially without Klay Thompson.
About a half-hour before tipoff, word started to filter out that Thompson, who was trying to talk his way into the game despite a strained hamstring, would not get his way, the Golden State medical staff opting for caution for fear of making the injury worse and potentially losing him for the remainder of the series.
Those three absences were too much for the Warriors to overcome.
The Raptors didn’t have much of an answer for Steph Curry, who took 31 shots and wound up with 47 points, but they had answers for pretty much everybody else who took the floor in the Warriors home whites.
Draymond Green had 17, Andre Iguodala had 11 and Quinn Cook had nine, but nothing that worried anyone in the black uniforms of the Raptors.
Lowry took about half as many shots in the game as Curry but his impact was off the charts.
He scored, he defended, he rebounded, he ran the offence — and probably filled the water bottles at halftime as well.
Lowry, like Curry, played every minute of the fourth quarter, finishing with about the same 45 minutes the Warriors’ best, and perhaps only, hope played.
Kawhi Leonard scored more points than Lowry, finishing with 30, seven rebounds and six assists, but as has been the case with Leonard lately, it was a quiet production which included 10 points from the free throw line.
Leonard was rather quiet in the first half, attempting just seven shots and hitting only two of them. He was getting to the line, though, and had nine points through the first half. But less than nine minutes into the third quarter, Leonard had already more than doubled that number and was up to 20 on the strength of two three-pointers.
Raptors coach Nick Nurse, who routinely starts the same five in the third quarter that began the game, switched things up this time with Fred VanVleet replacing Green.
Green was one of three starters playing with three fouls while VanVleet had just two. On top of that, VanVleet was doing as good a job as anyone of at least limiting Curry, who did not come off the court for the Warriors in the third quarter.
The Oracle crowd desperately tried to urge their team on throughout the quarter. The lead would dwindle to seven or eight and they would get super loud and Leonard or Lowry or VanVleet would come down and hit a bucket and 30 seconds later the lead would be back up to 12 or 14.
VanVleet wound up with 11 points off the bench and did another stellar job, regardless of Curry’s point total, in making the Warriors star work for everything he got.
The Raptors finished the first half with an eight-point lead but it was hardly satisfying.
Really, it was Curry and a lot of prayers when it came to the Warriors offence throughout Game 3.
And Curry was more than doing his part through the first half. He had 25 points in 21 minutes along with eight rebounds and four assists, giving him the team lead in all three categories.
Draymond Green’s seven points were the next highest total.
Despite the lack of Warriors scoring options, the Raptor could not pull away. They got the lead as big as 14 but every time it looked like they might extend this one to a more comfortable lead Curry would pop a few more in and keep it close.
Lowry, who was relatively quiet in the first quarter, broke out for 11 in the second and went to the locker-room leading the Raptors in points with 15.
But the opportunity was there to blow this game open and the Raptors let it pass.
The Raptors seemed intent on establishing both Gasol and Green in the early going after both players struggled to have an offensive impact on the game. Both players got early looks and by the end of the first quarter Green had nine with three makes from distance while Gasol had eight going inside to do most of his damage.
Curry, though, would not let the Raptors get too far ahead. He had 17 in the first quarter and perhaps just as importantly helped get two fouls on VanVleet, who has been so effective on the only remaining healthy Splash brother in the game Wednesday night.
The two teams have another day to get ready before they hit the floor again on Friday for Game 4.