The Toronto Raptors are your 2019 NBA Champions and they deserve all the credit in the world for dethroning the Warriors!
In the moment, many haters will point to the Warriors’ injuries as the reason the Raptors won, but as time passes all we’ll remember is that the Raptors were NBA Champions as they went on one of the best post-season runs we have ever seen.
Think back to late April…The Raptors lost their first game of the playoffs against the Magic! After game one, tons of people overreacted, and we thought this Raptors’ team were soft and still mentally weak. They proved us wrong then by beating the Magic four games in a row.
In the next round, the Raptors advanced on the greatest buzzer beater in NBA history as Kawhi’s shot bounced around every part of the rim before finally falling. They had beaten the 76ers who were considered to be a title contender before the NBA season began.
They then went on to beat the Milwaukee Bucks, the best team record wise and statistically all season long. They embarrassed the Bucks game after game as they struggled to generate any sort of offense in the half court. Coming into that series, Milwaukee was averaging 117.5 points per game in the playoffs. In the series against Toronto, that average dropped to 106.7. ELEVEN POINTS LESS THAN THEIR AVERAGE! Fred Van Vleet also had a national coming out party as he shot approximately 155% from three after having his kid. Kawhi Leonard knocked down deep two after deep two before eventually grabbing the series clinching offensive rebound that spurred the Raptors into the NBA Finals!
As the series began, the Raptors were heavy underdogs, even though they had the better top to bottom roster with Durant still sidelined for the Warriors. The Raptors stuck to their game plan, played amazing defense and then took down the Warriors’ dynasty.
Overall, it was an amazing run by an amazing team. We have never seen a trade pay off so well in the first season like this one did for Kawhi Leonard and the Raptors. Masai Ujiri deserves all the credit in the world for having the guts to make this big of a trade.
Ultimately, I think two factors contributed more to the Raptor's championship run than anything else: defense and teamwork.
Defense wins championships (it's a cliche because it's true) and teamwork is the most important characteristic of any championship team.
Every championship team also needs glue guys who know they role and can step up in the biggest moments because they aren’t afraid of the spotlight. Think of Steve Kerr with the Bulls, Derek Fisher with the Lakers, Robert Horry with every team, and Andre Iguodala with the Warriors. No matter how many stars a team has, they cannot win a title without depth and great teamwork.
That’s why the Miami Heat won titles in 2012 in 2013. That’s also partially why the Warriors lost this year.
Their star filled roster meant they had to sacrifice their depth that made them so good three years ago. One or two losses to important players and they couldn’t make up the gap. If the Raptors lost one player (like how they lost OG Anunoby), they had another who could step into the spotlight.
The Raptors’ defense was dominant all post-season long and when you take a look at the numbers, it’s obvious why they won the title. The Raptors defining quality on defense is their activity and aggressiveness. They never let up and they fly around on defense to get their hands in the way of every pass and every shot. Even when they missed a shot, they sprint to the ball for the rebound and then created an open three for themselves as the Warriors scrambled to pick up a man on defense.
Watch this defensive possession by the Raptors. VanVleet pursues Cook off the ball, Ibaka has his hands straight up to deny any ball entry into the post. Lowry pokes the ball away from Livingston and then comes over to crowd Klay with a double team. Then both Ibaka and Siakam go straight up to contest Looney's layup. Then the Raptors hustle down the court, grab their own miss, and knock down a three. This is the play of champions.
Just look at how hard they are competing on defense in this play. Golden State had no chance to get a good shot off here. Even look back at Game 5, Lowry’s ability to block Boogie’s shot here is because of how fast he’s moving and how hard he’s playing.
Because of their incredible defense, the Raptors were able to force the Warriors into 100 total turnovers for the series. Compare that to the Raptors’ turnovers which were only 77, and it’s obvious that the Warriors couldn’t take care of the ball enough in order to generate enough offense to beat the Raptors. Game 6 was the ultimate culmination of this as the Raptors forced the Draymond Green to commit 8 turnovers on offense.
Coming into the Finals, Golden State was averaging 117 points per game and the Raptors limited them to 105.8 for the series. That’s an even better margin than against the Bucks! Even if you take out the games Kevin Durant missed, the Warriors were averaging 115.4 without him in the playoffs. So basically the Raptors took away 10-12 Warriors’ points per game because of their great defense and turnovers.
Next, the Raptors teamwork was impeccable and a joy to watch throughout the series. They basically played 7 guys (plus Powell during some stretches) since Round 2 against the 76ers, and because of that every guy knew their role on both sides of the ball and each player had perfected what they needed to do against the highest level of competition. The Raptors had 7 players scored 17 or more points during the series and each player for the Raptors’ directly contributed to every win they had in one way or another.
I said before the series that Toronto’s role players would need to be awesome this series in order to win and they did that in just about every facet. Each player in the Raptors’ seven man rotation won them a game.
Without Kawhi Leonard to get buckets when the Raptors’ offense went stagnant, the Raptors’ couldn’t have won this series. His long arms also disrupted dozens of Warriors’ possessions and allowed him to grab the series winning defensive rebound that then resulted in the Draymond Green technical foul.
The Raptors’ needed Kyle Lowry to make Klay’s life hard on offense which he did over and over again throughout this series. His irrational confidence game in Game 3 propelled them to a victory in Oracle. Then to start Game 6, Lowry scored 11 straight points to start the game which gave the Raptors’ the start they needed as they went 3-0 on the road in these Finals.
The Raptors needed Siakam to have a near perfect shooting night in Game 1 in order for them to put the Warriors in a hole, and his three 3-pointers in the first half in Game 6 provided the shooting spark the Raptors needed when only Kyle Lowry had it going to start the game.
Danny Green’s incredible Game 3 was what the Raptors needed to overcome Curry’s 47 points and put the Warriors in a bigger hole.
Fred VanVleet hounded Curry for six games as well as any defender has done in the Finals since Matthew Dellavedova. However, unlike Delly, VanVleet’s shot was money all series and his four threes in the 4th quarter of Game 6 closed out the Warriors for good.
Serge Ibaka played five good games in a row in the Finals and his offensive rebounding on switches by the Warriors prevented them from getting out and running.
It also led to dozens of second chance opportunities in the series including this offensive rebound and three by Kawhi in the 3rd quarter of game 6.
These second chance opportunities kept the Warriors out of transition as well and allowed the Raptors to set up their half-court defense. His shot blocking was also crucial in Games 3 and 4 as the Raptors stole two games in a row on the road.
Marc Gasol’s playmaking and 20 points in Game 1 gave the Raptors an early lead in this series and his offensive rebounding in Game 6 proved to lead to three VanVleet free throws.
His size also prevented the Warriors from going too small throughout the entire series…and when the Warriors did play small, as they did to start game 5, Gasol killed them by scoring in the post almost every time he caught the ball down low.
The Raptors needed their whole team to close this series out in six games and they played an incredibly high level of basketball as they brought the Warriors’ dynasty tumbling to the ground.
Kawhi Leonard deserved Finals MVP because of his incredible play throughout the Playoffs, but the Raptors also wouldn’t be here without Kyle Lowry. He has taken crap, sometimes rightly so, for his play and his poor playoff performance. But tonight he stepped up on the biggest stage, and because of that he deserves much of the recognition for the Raptors winning the Finals.
I’m sad to see basketball end, but I was really happy with the final two games that we got in this series and the future of the NBA changed again in Game 6. There are so many questions left to answer and very little time to get to them. In one week, the NBA draft starts and in two weeks, free agency begins. The Warriors may truly be in shambles and I do not envy the job of Bob Myers as he tries to figure this whole situation out before July 1. I will talk about the Warriors’ future down the road (especially with the Klay injury), but for now let’s appreciate the greatness of the Raptors and what they accomplished because they are the 2019 NBA Champions!
P.S. I’m so happy for Jodie Meeks and Jeremy Lin! They seem like two incredibly great guys who are the ultimate team players and have made it through some tough situations with some bad teams. They deserve to be NBA Champions.
*photo found via Skysports
*Stats and info taken from NBA.com and Basketball Reference