2019 NBA Finals Thread, Part 3: Golden State Warriors vs Toronto Raptors | SERIES TIED AT 1

[Vlade Divac]

was last night at least fun to watch for warriors fans? ya know, with all the ball movement and no kd?

You are a legend LOL!

[tdotrep2]

I truly believe Steve Kerr cost them the game yesterday.

He completely overreacted to Kawhi Leonard by consistently sending these hard doubles without testing Kawhi's ISO game. Toronto was getting open 3 after open 3 from the tip because Golden State was so afraid of Kawhi's midrange jumper. Just seems like a poor cost-benefit analysis on his part.

Also why play Looney so many minutes? By using him as a screener in the pick-and-roll for Curry, you not only put Gasol in the action but you lose a playmaker and floor stretcher. You're losing in terms of switchability on defense, regardless of how adequate he is as a big man. They're letting Toronto get away with these big line-ups, and guess what Gasol is better than Looney on both ends. The Warriors should play to their strengths.

Warriors need to play Green at the 5 more and counter Gasol's size with speed. Defend Kawhi man-to-man to start the game and see if he can carry the team on his own before doubling and leaving shooters open.

It's only one game. But Kerr needs to revisit his whole gameplan.

I actually thought Looney played well. It looked like he even gave Kawhi a hard time when the switches came. That, and he was like 4 of 5 or something around the rim. He was good for the Warriors.

I agree that Looney played well individually, but the Warriors never got into any offensive rhythm whatsoever. Of course the Raptors defense had something to do with it, but Golden State played the entire game with a traditional center on the floor, which I've never (or seldom) seen them do so deep into the playoffs. I didn't mean to criticize Looney's performance, but I believe his presence on the court hurts Golden State in the big picture if you will (over time).

almost every single playoff game the other teams hasn't gotten into a rhythm vs the raptors, they take away what you go to and force you to beat them other ways, on top of this they play super aggressive and commit fouls to break the game up. Thats why people were **** on the 76ers and bucks, its more to do with the defensive scheme.

[ken6199]

KD is the medicine.

On offense, without KD the Warriors actually has mediocre ability in attacking the basket. They often go with some fancy motion offense followed by an inability to finish at the basket - something they thrived on back in 2015 as a pioneer but gradually figured out through these years. The East top 4 outside of Boston Celtics all have elite rim protection and paint rotation to deal with GS, something they honestly haven't seen since 2015 finals. So I expect them to have this type of difficult finishing at the basket whether they face Toronto now, or Philly/Milwaukee. The Toronto big men crew overpowers Warriors' size wise, and athleticism wise. The return of a healthy KD will not only provide them a 7' finishing ability but also consume more energy from Kawhi/Siakam on the defensive end, plus KD is a good matchup defending Kawhi/Siakam, the clear cut 1st/2nd scoring option for Toronto.

Of course Siakam played a perfect game last night which you cannot expect to be a guaranteed production the rest of the series, however it does seem like his back-to-the-basketball play is becoming a little too much for Draymond. For the past years against bigger power forwards like Blake, ZBo etc, Green can utilize his mobility on them but against Siakam who is equally quick, freakishly long(er), solid post footwork, and not a push-over strength wise, Draymond does not have an advantage anymore, or at least he has to put large amount of effort guarding him. Shooter's forms goes up and down so sometimes you can just let him shoot and expect he goes cold, but if you cannot comfortably guard someone 1-on-1 down low, then you WILL NOT be able to comfortably guard him the rest of the series.

The Toronto vet crew, Lowry/Gasol/Ibaka, they all have tons of post season experience yet they have something else in common - a strong motivation to prove themselves because they either constantly got rejected by LeBron, or someone who has been to the finals but could not get it done, or always seen as the guy but had to drag a bad team not able to consistently break through the West conference. And plus FVV, Powell, that group grew together going through a tough 2 rounds 13 games, like a term in the game world, they "leveled up", and gained tons of XP. They are prepared.

Curry scored 30+ on good efficiency (obviously not something unheard of for a consensus league top 5 player), but you just don't feel like he gave his team a lot of help elsewhere, and he didn't shift a lot of Raptors' defense especially in the 4th quarter, Curry was forced to mid ranges and floaters. Gasol deserves a lot of praise for G1, because of his help defense, it took away the bread and butter of GS offense - Curry attracts double team to create a Draymond 4v3 situation on high post. Gasol played a flawless game outside of that Curry 3pt play in the 4th quarter.

Unlike the past 3 years, there is no heavy favorite going into this year's finals at least it stays that way before a healthy KD return. Before G1 I favored Toronto for the first 2 games and saw a 1-1 split as the worst case scenario for them. I think it stays that way going into G2. For GS, it's not about can they shoot any better or one of Curry and Klay go crazy, the most important question for them is, how can they more efficiently get to /finish at the rim with those backdoor plays between Draymond and whoever because without that, all their motion offense is smoke and mirror and their shooters will be relentlessly targeted and doubled at the perimeter.

[guess_wh0]

One important adjustment for Kerr to figure out will be Transition defense. The Raptors, especially Siakam, absolutely annihilated GS in transition (26 transition points are the highest GS has given up this Post season) but it's dicey because they scored a huge chunk of their points off Offensive rebounds, loose balls and just being relentless on the Offensive boards. If you stop doing that to take away transition, can you Even score 90 against this Raptors defense?

[Son Goku 25]

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[niQ]

[Son Goku 25]

What I find hilarious is how everyone is saying how Warriors need KD to win lol the most stacked team ever needs another MVP to win and stop Siakam? That's quite a bit of respect for the trash Raptors.

[RaptorPride]

What I find hilarious is how everyone is saying how Warriors need KD to win lol the most stacked team ever needs another MVP to win and stop Siakam? That's quite a bit of respect for the trash Raptors.

It's Lowry, they can't stop him

[FromTheNorth]

I truly believe Steve Kerr cost them the game yesterday.

He completely overreacted to Kawhi Leonard by consistently sending these hard doubles without testing Kawhi's ISO game. Toronto was getting open 3 after open 3 from the tip because Golden State was so afraid of Kawhi's midrange jumper. Just seems like a poor cost-benefit analysis on his part.

Also why play Looney so many minutes? By using him as a screener in the pick-and-roll for Curry, you not only put Gasol in the action but you lose a playmaker and floor stretcher. You're losing in terms of switchability on defense, regardless of how adequate he is as a big man. They're letting Toronto get away with these big line-ups, and guess what Gasol is better than Looney on both ends. The Warriors should play to their strengths.

Warriors need to play Green at the 5 more and counter Gasol's size with speed. Defend Kawhi man-to-man to start the game and see if he can carry the team on his own before doubling and leaving shooters open.

It's only one game. But Kerr needs to revisit his whole gameplan.

I actually thought Looney played well. It looked like he even gave Kawhi a hard time when the switches came. That, and he was like 4 of 5 or something around the rim. He was good for the Warriors.

I agree that Looney played well individually, but the Warriors never got into any offensive rhythm whatsoever. Of course the Raptors defense had something to do with it, but Golden State played the entire game with a traditional center on the floor, which I've never (or seldom) seen them do so deep into the playoffs. I didn't mean to criticize Looney's performance, but I believe his presence on the court hurts Golden State in the big picture if you will (over time).

Actually there was a point (start of 3rd quarter I think) where Golden State tried to play small with Draymond at center and Toronto stuck with Gasol on. Two things happened, one was that Raptors killed them in boards during this period and two was Siakam got like 6 quick points with an open paint (Something like a 10-3 run in that short timespan putting Raptors up almost 15). After that Kerr opted to go back in with the traditional lineup.

[soxfan2003]

What I find hilarious is how everyone is saying how Warriors need KD to win lol the most stacked team ever needs another MVP to win and stop Siakam? That's quite a bit of respect for the trash Raptors.

538 says thanks to missed games etc, Toronto really a 65 win team.

Iggy in his prime with Warriors was arguably their 3rd best player behind Curry and Green. And he probably was their 3rd most important player ahead of Klay. He is no longer as good and they don't have a rim protector they trust in the absence of KD.

Toronto has a Finals MVP and top 5ish player in the NBA. 2 former all-stars in their starting lineup that still know how to play and frankly one of those players(Lowry) has outplayed Kyrie Irving in the playoffs. And one of the better 3 and D players in NBA history. All 5 Raptors can score and defend. Granted Green is probably slowing down and missed vs the Bucks but he is one of the better 3 and D players in NBA history. Add in a few capable bench players and you have a great team.

I underrated the Raptors in relation to the Bucks based upon what I saw out of them the first 2 games of the Milwaukee series. I still think Bucks slightly superior but both Bucks and Raptors capable of beating Warriors with KD.

These 2 teams were not the joke 1 man Cavs from last year. And Warriors have slipped a little bit with age.

With KD for all 7 games Warriors deserved to be clear favorites but not overwhelmingly so since Raptors if they hit shots would still have the ability to score. And Raptors with all of their players playing are a great defensive team that is going to slow any edition of the Warriors somewhat.

[everdiso]

Can we all please just agree to stop complaining about the refs?

the refs will not be the difference in this series, most likely.

Whining about every iffy call is boring and annoying, and ruins the game threads.

[SFour]

Without KD the Raptors are simply a better team from top to bottom...then you add HCA on top of that.

[ChiCitySPORTS#1]

Would Raptors visit White house if they win the championship?

Yeah? The team is all Americans lol

[ChiCitySPORTS#1]

theyre gonna keep moving this date back. Ill believe it when i see it.

If KD comes back I'll have great respect for him.

Game 4 marks exactly one month from his injury and that would mean the tear in his calf muscle was actually a Grade 2 calf strain and not a Grade 1 as they first said.

I don't think they missed the length of the torn muscle in the MRI so reports that the injury was worse than Warriors said it was will be proven accurate.

One month for a grade 2 is a totally reasonable recovery time.

Would he risk re-injuring it again though? I mean, he's got a BIG contract waiting for him, wherever he goes... Calf muscles are funny...

Call me crazy, but I think he gets the max even if had tore his Achilles

[NapoleonII]

Would Raptors visit White house if they win the championship?

Yeah? The team is all Americans lol

Nah, I don't think they'd visit a Russian head of state.

[The Explorer]

Brian Windhorst got this right - this is the toughest defense GS has faced in their 5 year run. We finally had an opposing coach who can defend those slip screens and Green/Curry pick n roll and who was physical with them. That's all you had to do but for some reason no coaches did this for the past 5 years.

[lolwut]

Would Raptors visit White house if they win the championship?

Yeah? The team is all Americans lol

Nah, I don't think they'd visit a Russian head of state.

I doubt either team will want to visit the white house.

[ChiCitySPORTS#1]

Yeah? The team is all Americans lol

Nah, I don't think they'd visit a Russian head of state.

I doubt either team will want to visit the white house.

Yeah, maybe not

[nedleeds]

How many hockey assists did Kawhi have? He was passing out of the trap better than vs. the 76'ers.

[GusT15]

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You seem to have an unhealthy obsession with what other teams fans think or want.

You are in the Finals and up 1-0.

Try focussing a bit more on where your team is and what is at stake and less with what goes through the mind of other teams fans.

Unless you can't enjoy your team's success if it's not in contrast to someone else's misery/expense.

And if that's the case,i can't really relate,so,i guess,enjoy basketball any way you can friend.