Posted on 06/07/2019 9:45:09 PM PDT by conservative98
OAKLAND, Calif. — It may now all be up to Kevin Durant and the state of his calf strain to save the Warriors from doom.
Before Friday’s Game 4 of the NBA Finals, Steve Kerr was asked about that night being potentially the final Warriors game at Oracle Arena.
“The mindset is, let’s make sure there’s two more games here,’’ the Golden State coach said.
The Warriors did not get that done, despite controlling the first half, and now the champs’ legs are wobbling.
The Raptors rolled in the final two periods as Kawhi Leonard lifted his squad onto his shoulders with a 17-point third quarter to finish with 36 points and 12 rebounds in a 105-92 victory.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
One thing that’s always been hard to swallow is that Toronto has almost always, historically, and reliably, had the absolute worst teams in pretty much all pro-sports, bar-none.
Nice to see one of them maybe bringing home a victory for a change. :P
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Toronto Blue Jays won World Series in 1992 and 1993...Remember the home run hit by Joe Carter in 1993?
The Maple Leafs have won 13 Stanley Cup Championships too, just none since 1967.
Yep.
The Warriors’ disrespectful attitude on DDay was sickening. Several of them had their hands in their pockets during the national anthem. F them.
They’re Warriors all right. Social Justice Warriors. Next they’ll change their team name as it is a microagression.
Maybe to the Golden State Lilies.
...And that was almost thirty years ago. X.x
Who would have thought last summer that Kawhi Leonard would be more successful for Toronto’s fans than Pajama Boy John Tavares? Suck on it Maple Leaf fans!
Cavaliers fan here, thrilled to see the Raptors sticking it to the Warriors.
i hate basketball but take pleasure in watching the Warriors lose and the Knicks suck..
LOL
I’ve been out of basketball for so long, I seriously wondered how did a 4th-string team like Golden State get to the finals with an expansion franchise.
He is the political head of Canada but technically Queen Elizabeth II is the head of state. I think it would be very cool and different if the Raps traveled over to merry olde England to meet her. The size differential alone would be amusing. When the Blue Jays won the world series they met the PM who was Chretien at the time and also had a White House visit but didn’t go and meet the Queen IIRC.
I read somewhere that the Raptors home court is called Jurrasic Park...very clever.
One thing about living in Toronto and following it’s sports teams is you learn about patience.
No the arena used to be called Air Canada Center but now renamed Scotiabank Arena due to big bucks naming rights. Jurassic Park is the nickname for a fan area outside the arena where there is a large video board where one can watch games. The Raptors got their name in 1995 in the wake of the popularity of Jurassic Park (1993) so the nickname is a direct homage to the original inspiration for the team name. One sign I saw being held up last night was bridges can’t hold dinosaurs.
The place where they actually play is ScotiaBank Arena; “Jurassic Park” is the adjacent outdoor area set aside for the playoffs where “overflow” fans (those who couldn’t get into the arena) can gather and watch the game on big-screens ...
Obviously, lately it’s been packed, and some say there’s a better party on the outside than on the inside
take away the 6-minute start to the 3rd qtr of Game 3, and the Raptors are up by 49 points over 4 games...
(those 6 minutes where Toronto apparently decided to stay in the locker room and the Warriors had a shoot-around that actually counted).
If the Raptors win the championship, it would make sense for the most sports-minded member of the Queen’s family, Prince Harry, to make a congratulatory visit to Toronto to honor the team.
But if he doesn’t, and he continues to attend polo matches and other minor sporting events around the world, won’t it seem like he’s boycotting a major world-class sports victory in Canada, a leading member of Britain’s Commonwealth of Nations?
Actually, I paused and rewound my DVR during Game 2 because, in the background, Toronto had a scrawl going around the arena that said "RAPS FOR THE WIN" (or some such thing), and my mind read it as "RAPE FOR THE WIN".
I was relieved that my peripheral vision was tricked, LOL.
And they did it in the tougher Western Conference (FAR tougher than the East for the early part of that 5-year run)...
But I'm glad they'll (likely) only win 3 of the 5. Any team with too much success usually turns me off pretty quickly. If the NBA became a one team league, what's the point of watching, unless you're from SF?
As for consecutive Conference titles, before the Raptors, CLE just won 4 straight, giving us four consecutive GS-CLE Finals, which got tedious...
before that was MIA winning four straight (meaning BronBron was in 8 straight, winning 3)
The Lakers recently hit 3 in a row, multiple times... 1987-1989, 2002-2004 and 2008-2010...
So did the Bulls... 1991-1993, and 1996-1998, winning all 6 titles
The Pistons also had a three-peat of Appearances, 1988-1990...
Then the Celtics did a four-peat, 1984-1987, while the Lakers did 7 of 8, 1982-1989
But you are correct, the last time anyone (other than LeBron) saw 5 Finals in a row was the Celtics, who did 10 in a row, and 12 of 13, from 1957-1969, winning all 12 titles (PHI won in 1967)... this while the Lakers appeared in 9 of 12, from 1962-1973, winning only one of the nine, in 1972.
From 1957 until 1989, for 33 years, the Finals had either Boston or the Lakers, or both, just about every single year. Only 6 times, out of 33, were they both shut out. The Celtics went 16-3 in their 19 appearances, and the Lakers went 6-12 in their 19 appearances... but 8 of those losses were to Boston... and 2 of the 3 Boston losses were to LA (1985, 1987)
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