Warriors bring special sound
The league’s best team puts fans on edge of their seats
There’s a sound in basketball that’s reserved for the very best players, or the best teams, or in some rare cases, all the best players on the best team. It’s a combination of the crowd gasping in fear, excitement and appreciation, that moment where an opponent wins over the crowd’s tribal affiliation and forces a sort of delighted surrender.
For that, though, it helps if your team to be in the game, too, because otherwise a crowd eventually just sits in mute amazement, like they’re outside their city and watching it burn. Over the last three years, the Raptors have played the Golden State Warriors pretty well, without beating them. And Saturday night, on the second night of a back-to-back, the Warriors rolled up 81 points at the half. The NBA record in a first half is 107 points, by the way, so it could have been worse.
“You gotta score,” said Raptors coach Dwane Casey before the game.
“You gotta score, there can’t be lapses of scoring. That’s how they get you . . . You have all the good intentions of stopping them or slowing them down, but against this team, you’ve got to score.”
It was former MVP Steph Curry’s first game back from an ankle sprain, and he wasn’t at his best. But this is what Cleveland failed to do when they came to Toronto on Thursday and barely put up a fight in a 133-99 demolition, and it’s a hell of a contrast between those two contenders’ habits.
Golden State came in a leagueleading 34-9 despite Kevin Durant missing eight games, Curry missing 14, Draymond Green missing six. Absurd.
But . . . then the Raptors came back. DeMar DeRozan had 25 points in the first half and didn’t stop. But more, the defence became a defence. They dug in. They got stubborn. The Warriors lead dropped from 27 to 19, 19 to nine. The crowd was roaring.
Eh. Durant drilled a catch-and-shoot three, and then a crossover three, and you heard that sound. Wow. Did you see that? Wow. Golden State ended the third quarter up 19. The Raptors cut it to four with 6:32 left in the fourth, with the bench unit — cut to ribbons in the first half — chopping away at the big dogs. They cut it to two.
The sound was different, then. It was a crowd in full.
And it came down to this: In the final minute, with Toronto down one, DeRozan missed a pull-up over the seven-foot Durant, and Durant, ruthless killer that he is, hit a bloodless pull-up jumper of his own. Toronto’s response produced an off-balance C.J. Miles three; it was not a great shot. Toronto lost, 127125. Great game.
Remember: These Raptors are good. They’re better with Lowry, obviously. But Golden State entered the game first in offensive rating and third in defensive rating; Toronto came in third, and fourth. Washington, 10th and ninth coming into Saturday night, was the only other team in the top 10 in both. The Warriors spent a lot of the night showing the difference between having four all-stars, and having one.
The Raptors made it a game anyway.
“What the league couldn’t figure out about them (was) positionless basketball,” said veteran wing C.J. Miles.
“But with them, all the guys at the position are better, are great at that position. It’s positionless, but Steph is a great point guard, Klay is a great two guard, Durant is a great small forward, Draymond is a great power forward.
“And then it’s like, Kevin is also a great power forward. Klay’s a good small forward. Steph can play two guard. You know what I mean?”
“They just play, and it allows everybody’s talents and skills to be under a magnifying glass. Everything looks bigger. So what you need on the other side is guys who can make it tough, who compete.”
That was these Raptors, in the second half. But DeRozan isn’t Durant, and doesn’t have three all-stars alongside him.
It must be nice being the Warriors, and building something so beautiful and harmonious that a superstar dropped from the sky. Before the game, Golden State coach Steve Kerr was asked about ESPN’s recent story about Charlotte coach Steve Clifford, who had to step away from the job because of the toll it was taking on his health. Kerr has dealt with complications from back surgery that nearly drove him from the league, but otherwise, there was no similarity.
“I can’t relate to that one bit,” said Kerr.
“My health was strictly related to a surgery gone bad. I love my job, I love everything about it, I don’t get too stressed about it. Maybe because I have great players.”
It’s a good life. But the Raptors have built their own thing here, with less extravagant building materials. And here’s what the last two games did: They showed themselves, and the kids on this team, that they can fight with the biggest dogs. Here in Toronto we are obsessed with the impossible idea of surmounting LeBron; the Cavs may look old and slow now, but they won’t forever. LeBron always has the answers, in the East.
But there’s a taller mountain beyond those peaks. And it must be a hell of a feeling to stand atop it, and hear that sound.