J-Speaks: Raptors Advance to Their First NBA Finals

Saturday night marked the 100^th Playoff game in the history for the Toronto Raptors. Their 99^th Playoff game in franchise history was a come-from-behind six-point win that got them within one win of their first trip to the NBA Finals. While it took them until the third quarter to give themselves a chance to make that dream a reality, they did so thanks to a stellar fourth quarter performance and another stellar game from their prized acquisition in the summer of 2018. 

Behind 27 points, a career-high 17 rebounds, seven assists, two blocks and two steals from 2014 NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard the Raptors advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history with a 100-94 win on TNT over the No. 1 Seed in the East the Milwaukee Bucks to win the Eastern Conference Finals 4-2. They will host the back-to-back NBA champions from the Western Conference champion the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of The Finals on Thursday night at 9 p.m. on ABC, presented by YouTubeTV. 

After losing the first two games at the Bucks, the Raptors reeled off four straight victories, joining the 1977 NBA champion Portland Trail Blazers, the eventual 1993 NBA champion Chicago Bulls, the 2006 NBA champion Miami Heat, the 2007 East champion Cleveland Cavaliers and the 2012 West champion Oklahoma City Thunder as the six teams to lose the first two games of a Conference Finals or NBA Finals series and win the next four in succession. 

A thunderous left-handed dunk with 6:46 left in the third quarter by Leonard off a pass from All-Star lead guard Kyle Lowry via a steal on the Bucks’ Khris Middleton capped a 26-3 that began late in third period with the Raptors trailing 76-61. 

“Just one possession at a time,” Leonard, who had 19 points in the second half said to TNT’s Kristen Ledlow after the win. “We kept playing all game. Was down 10 points. We felt calls weren’t going our way but we just kept striving and striving. And then when I was on that bench at the start of the fourth quarter, my teammates did a great job of picking up the lead.” 

Those teammates Leonard is talking about include All-Star lead guard Kyle Lowry, who had 17 points with eight assists and five rebounds on 6 for 10 shooting, including 3 for 4 from three-point range, and just one turnover in 41 minutes. Fellow starter Pascal Siakam added 17 points, while Lowry’s understudy Fred VanVleet scored 14 points off the bench, going 4 for 6 from three-point range. Fellow reserves Norman Powell and Serge Ibaka each contributed nine points off the bench. 

Coming into Game 6, Raptors first-year head coach Nick Nurse said that in order for his team to win Game 6 and make it to The Finals, they had to limit their turnovers; share the ball on offense; limit the Bucks opportunities in transition; continue to build that road block against the Bucks penetration in the paint; put consistent ball pressure on the Bucks at their offensive end and close out on their shooters, especially from three-point range. 

In the Game 6 clincher, the Raptors only had 11 turnovers for seven Bucks points, committing only four miscues in the second half. They had 20 assists on 36 made field goals. The Bucks had only 13 fast break points on the night, with only four coming in the second half. While the Raptors forced just 11 Bucks turnovers in the game, scoring just nine points off those miscues, they outscored them in the paint 34-28. After going 9 for 18 from three-point range in the first half, which included going 6 for 9 from distance in the opening quarter, the Raptors held their visitors to just 3 for 16 from distance in the second 24 minutes and overall shot just 40 percent from the field on the night. 

In the last two games, the Raptors had to overcome double-digit deficits and stage rallies in Games 5 at the Bucks and at home in Game 6 to reach the NBA Finals. 

They overcame a 14-point first quarter deficit, where they shot 35 percent with just four assists; committed four turnovers and were outrebounded 16-9 in Game 5 on Thursday night to win at the Bucks 105-99 to be within one game of moving on. 

In Game 6, the Raptors trailed after the first quarter 31-18, going 6 for 19 shooting in the opening period and were behind as mentioned by 15 points (38-23) in the second quarter and as mentioned in the third quarter before they kicked it into high gear, outscoring the Bucks 29-18 in the fourth period going 4 for 8 from three-point range in the period and 12 for 27 from distance on the night. 

“I think we we’re more aggressive on the defensive end, and obviously we made shots,” Leonard, whose team went 11 for 18 in the fourth quarter and held the Bucks to 7 for 18 shooting said to Ledlow. “Guys stepped up and was confident and knocked down shots.” 

While the clear star of this series on both sides was Leonard, the Raptors are not advancing to The Finals without the stellar play from the likes of Norman Powell, who was tremendous in this series; VanVleet who really broke out of his shooting slump in the closing games of this series, Ibaka, and Siakam and the longest tenured Raptor Lowry. 

Before the Eastern Conference Finals, the 2015 Second-Round pick out of UCLA, selected No. 46 overall had scored in double-figures just twice in the first two rounds of the 2019 postseason with 16 and 11 points respectably in Games 4 and 5 of the opening-round against the No. 7 Seeded Orlando Magic. In this series against the Bucks, Powell averaged 12.3 points on 47.1 percent from the field and 52.6 percent from three-point range. 

In the Raptors 118-112 double-overtime win in Game 3, the now 26-year-old Powell had 19 points off the bench on 7 for 13 shooting, including 3 for 5 from three-point range. While he shot just 6 for 18 from the floor in the Game 4 win by the Raptors, Powell had 18 points, nailing four triples. 

In his prior nine games of this postseason, second-year guard VanVleet had gone an abysmal 3 for 24 from three-point range, with his last connection from long distance coming in Game 5 of the East Semifinals versus the No. 3 Seeded Philadelphia 76ers on May 7. 

The former Wichita State sharp-shooter got off the matt in the Game 4 win with 13 points and six assists off the bench going a perfect 3 for 3 from three-point range. Then just hours after the birth of his second child on Monday, his first son VanVleet had 21 points in Game 5 making a career-best seven three-pointers in nine tries. 

Counting what he did in the Game 6 clincher, VanVleet has made 14 of his last 17 from three-point range. 

What VanVleet and his teammates did in the last two games is a huge reason why Leonard was able to finish off the Bucks like he was able to do in the last two games, with 15 points on 4 for 9 shooting in the fourth quarter to finish with 35 points, a career-high nine assists with seven boards and two steals on 11 for 25 from the field, including 5 for 8 from three-point range, and 8 for 9 from the free throw line. That was followed by his aforementioned 27 points with 17 boards in the Game 6 clincher. 

For much of his playoff career for the Raptors, Lowry has had some high moments as well as some low moments both individually with his production and how the team has done. 

In the team’s prior five consecutive postseason appearances, their endings have come in a four-game sweep, including their last two finishes in the East Semis at the hands of four-time Kia MVP of now the Los Angeles Lakers LeBron James and the former four-time defending East champion Cleveland Cavaliers. 

This past off-season Raptors’ President Masai Ujiri, the front runner for NBA Executive of the Year and Raptors Chairman of the Board and Chairman of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment made two bold moves in first firing the winningest head coach in franchise history and 2018 Kia Coach of the Year in Dwane Casey and replacing him with his assistant for the last five seasons in Nurse. He then trading Lowry’s starting backcourt mate and best friend on the team in All-Star DeMar DeRozan to the San Antonio Spurs for Leonard and Danny Green. 

For a time, Lowry did not want to talk to the Raptors organization after the move was made as he was practicing with Team USA for the upcoming Olympic Games in 2020. 

It was a bold and risky move for the fact that there was no guarantee that Leonard would re-sign with the team after this season because he will be an unrestricted free agent. 

That gamble has so far paid off as Leonard has performed extremely well this postseason averaging 31.2 points with 8.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.6 steals on 50.7 percent from the field, 38.8 percent from three-point range and 87.5 percent from the free throw line.

“It means a lot,” Lowry, who averaged 14.5 points, 6.5 rebounds in the East Finals said to TNT’s Ernie Johnson during the postgame Eastern Conference Champion Trophy presentation about making it to the NBA Finals for the first time in his career. “It’s been the best seven years of my career.” 

Lowry added about the fan support and the play of his teammates, especially in the Game 6 clincher, “These fans have been here since Day 1 since I’ve been here and these group of guys, I’ve got back here were special. We’ve worked extremely hard and, you know, the fans have given us everything we needed tonight. Our families, our friends, you know, but we’re not satisfied though. This is one step to our end goal.”

Along with acquiring Leonard and Green in the off-season, he drafted Siakam, who has averaged 18.7 points and seven boards on 45.8 percent shooting during this postseason; acquired now starting center Marc Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies; drafted Powell in the Second-Round in 2015 as mentioned earlier and signed VanVleet, who went undrafted two years ago. 

All those players played huge roles in the Raptors getting to The Finals for the first time and Ujiri has total confidence that they will win it all. 

On May 24, 1994, 25 years and one day ago from this past weekend the Toronto Raptors came into being. They have had many players come and go, even superstars like current Atlanta Hawk Vince Carter, NBA on ESPN studio analyst Tracy McGrady, Chris Bosh, Damon Stoudamire, and the aforementioned DeRozan who all played a part of making Raptors basketball not only visible but popular in a predominant hockey town and nation of Canada. On Thursday they will be the first team in NBA history to host Game 1 of The Finals outside the United States against the back-to-back defending NBA champion Warriors. 

“We’re very appreciative and these guys are unbelievable,” Ujiri also said to Johnson and the home crowd of Scotiabank Arena. “Unbelievable team. It’s all about the players and these guys have been great. But we’re not satisfied because we want to win the championship.” 

Ujiri added, “We came all this way to compete and we want to win in Toronto, and we will win in Toronto.”  

Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 5/21/19 11 p.m. edition of “Inside the NBA,” presented by Kia on TNT with Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, and Shaquille O’Neal; 5/23/19 8:30 p.m. “Toronto Raptors versus Milwaukee Bucks,” Game 5 Eastern Conference Finals on TNT, presented by Google Pixel with Marv Albert, Chris Webber, Reggie Miller, and Kristen Ledlow; 5/25/19 8 p.m. TNT “NBA Tip-Off,” presented by Autotrader with Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, and Shaquille O’Neal; 5/25/19 8:30 p.m. “Milwaukee Bucks versus Toronto Raptors,” Game 6 Eastern Conference Finals on TNT, presented by Google Pixel with Marv Albert, Chris Webber, Reggie Miller, and Kristen Ledlow; 5/27/19 11 p.m. edition “Inside the NBA,” presented by Kia on TNT with Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, and Shaquille O’Neal; www.espn.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/tor; www.espn.com/nba/player/_/id/3149673/pascal-siakam; www.espn.com/nba/player/_/id/3012/kyle-lowry; www.espn.com/nba/player/_/id/6450/kawhi-leonard; www.espn.com/nba/player/gamelog/_/id/2991230/fred-vanvleet; https://www.nba.com/games/20190525/MILTOR#/recap; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Toronto_Raptors_seasons.