Jun 4, 2019
Raptors need to take advantage with Warriors banged up
For the last half-decade, the Golden State Warriors have been the NBA’s immovable object. But heading into Game 3, the champs are banged up and Toronto has a chance to take advantage, writes Josh Lewenberg.
SAN FRANCISCO – For the last half-decade, the Golden State Warriors have been the NBA’s immovable object.
They were already historically great, then they went out and signed one of the league’s top two or three players and have been virtually untouchable since. They have a ridiculous 45-11 postseason record in the Kevin Durant era and have yet to lose a playoff series.
Five years, five Finals appearances, three championships and counting – they’re one of the association’s great dynasties and arguably the best team ever assembled.
So, if you’re one of the NBA’s other 29 clubs, why bother?
It’s a fair question and one that each of those organizations has asked themselves at some point over the years. Is it worth going all-in to chase a championship knowing that you’ll have to go through Golden State in the end? Why not take a strategic step back, rebuild or stockpile assets, bide your time and wait out the dynasty? Many teams have, and that’s their prerogative.
Others, including the Toronto Raptors, have pushed in their chips hoping that maybe, just maybe, things will break their way. The NBA is constantly shifting, after all. You never know when an opportunity will present itself, and fortune favours the bold.
Masai Ujiri and the Raptors have certainly been bold – firing the league’s Coach of the Year, trading for a hobbled and disgruntled superstar and consolidating their depth for an aging centre – and now, they may have caught that break they needed.
The Warriors are a banged up team going into Wednesday’s Game 3 of their championship series with Toronto, tied at one win apiece.
Durant has missed a month with the calf injury he sustained in the Western Conference semis against Houston and has already been ruled out for Wednesday. Very little is known about the severity of his injury. Some believe he could return for Game 4. Others suspect his season is done.
Klay Thompson is listed as questionable for Game 3 with a hamstring strain. He was able to get a light workout in on Tuesday – a bit of shooting, but he wasn’t especially mobile. It sounds like he’ll give it a go, but you can probably expect him to be limited in some capacity.
Kevon Looney, an important rotation piece for Golden State, will miss the rest of the series after fracturing his collarbone, while Andre Iguodala and DeMarcus Cousins are playing at something less than 100 per cent.
“[That’s] just the way it goes,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said following his team’s practice on Wednesday. “We have been playing a hundred-plus games for five years now – not all of our players, but our team. So we have a lot of guys who have played long, difficult seasons. They take great care of themselves, but there's a certain amount of luck involved with this, too, and we know that. We have been on both sides of that. Some of our opponents have suffered injuries. We have suffered injuries. It's just part of the deal. You just keep pushing forward.”
To a man, the Raptors insist that it’s business as usual for them. Their preparation and approach doesn’t change without knowing for sure who is going to be on the other side of the court. They’re worried about themselves.
“We all know they’re a great team regardless,” Pascal Siakam said. “We don’t look at that. I think for us it’s more about doing all the things we’re supposed to do in terms of a game plan and making sure we bring the intensity and energy that we need. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter who they have, we’ve gotta be able to have that same intensity against anybody that we play.”
That’s the right mindset to have, of course. Respect your opponent and “control what you can control,” as Fred VanVleet put it. Still, there’s no denying the impact Golden State’s injuries could have on the remainder of this series and the Raptors’ chances of winning their first ever NBA title.
With each game Durant misses, and with each game Thompson and several of his Warriors teammates play at less than full strength, Toronto’s window of opportunity widens.
The Warriors are vulnerable for the first time since they landed Durant, but they’re also not dead. What’s left of them?
Steph Curry is a superstar and a top-5 player in the NBA. He’s led them to a win in 32 of the last 34 games he’s played without Durant. Draymond Green is an all-star, one of the league’s best defenders and a triple-double machine. He might be having the best postseason run of his career. Iguodala is a former Finals MVP. He’s a winner and a big-shot maker, as he proved at the end of Game 2. Cousins isn’t what he was pre-injury, but he looked much better on Sunday than he did in the opener. He can still make his presence felt.
At or anywhere close to full strength, the Warriors are simply unfair, they’re that good. This iteration, banged up and without their best player, is still a championship-calibre team, and may end up being a championship-winning team, depending on how the rest of this goes. But, suddenly, things have gotten interesting.
The Raptors opted to remain competitive. They promoted the innovative Nick Nurse and added a force of nature in Kawhi Leonard and a couple proven veterans in Danny Green and Marc Gasol. They gave themselves a chance.
Opportunity knocks, now they have to take advantage.
“I think we come into [Game 3 with] a sense of urgency, period,” said Kyle Lowry. “No matter the situation. We want to be the first to four [wins], and every game is an urgent game. You're in the NBA Finals, so it doesn't matter [who’s healthy]. They still have professional basketball players down there, and they're really talented basketball players. So you still got to be ready to go out there and play your butt off and play hard.”