Congrats to the Toronto Raptors!

[LightTheBeam]

Congrats to the Raptors for winning the championship! I'll admit i was openly rooting for a new champion and the warriors to get dethroned. Most of my fam/friends think I'm crazy for rooting against the cali team and for a Canadian team.

Who were you guys rooting for?

[sacking123]

I was rooting for the Warriors. Raptors thoroughly deserved to win and were the better team.
Respect for Kawhi grew tremendously this series and also Lowry.
Ibaka, Gasol, Van Vleet were all great too and everyone just seemed to come into the game, no matter who they called on, knowing their role and not trying to go outside of it.
I still haven't seen a team play better basketball movement wise than the Warriors from a few years ago, but what was so impressive from the Raptors was Kawhi being the clear number 1 option, but they didn't go out of their way to give him the ball every time. The balance at which they played was extremely impressive.

[Lost in LA]

I was disappointed in the outcome, and found that this was a very hollow victory. The Warriors were on the short end of injuries obviously and some of the officiating.

The 3 or even 4 superstar model doesn't work though as the Warriors 6-9 rotation players were generally very poor, and that was the key difference.

I hope the Kings were studying the Toronto team composition as that seems to be the new model.

[LightTheBeam]

I was disappointed in the outcome, and found that this was a very hollow victory. The Warriors were on the short end of injuries obviously and some of the officiating.

The 3 or even 4 superstar model doesn't work though as the Warriors 6-9 rotation players were generally very poor, and that was the key difference.

I hope the Kings were studying the Toronto team composition as that seems to be the new model.

Cant really agree with this post.

1. Injuries suck but they happen. Gs has been lucky a lot with that in the playoffs, Kawhi, love, kyrie, cp3...

2. Also it felt like that refs blatantly favored the warriors. I mean for example those last few minutes of game 6. They got away with cousins shoving Lowry, fouling Kawhi on a 3, curry tripping over himself, offensive goaltending. I had a neutral fan message me saying how blatantly the refs tried to get gsw back in the game.

Also no need for excuses on their team. They were plenty deep.sucks to miss KD and klay for that time, but raps went 7 deep and at full health the warriors go even deeper.

Looney/cousins/bogut
Green/ jerebko
KD/Iggy
Klay/livington/alfonzo
Curry/cook

Iggy/cousins off the bench. Csnt really feel sympathy there.

It was a good series but lets not go make excuses for GS like they haven't typically been on the right side of luck.

[kalenclayton]

I was disappointed in the outcome, and found that this was a very hollow victory. The Warriors were on the short end of injuries obviously and some of the officiating.

The 3 or even 4 superstar model doesn't work though as the Warriors 6-9 rotation players were generally very poor, and that was the key difference.

I hope the Kings were studying the Toronto team composition as that seems to be the new model.

Cant really agree with this post.

1. Injuries suck but they happen. Gs has been lucky a lot with that in the playoffs, Kawhi, love, kyrie, cp3...

2. Also it felt like that refs blatantly favored the warriors. I mean for example those last few minutes of game 6. They got away with cousins shoving Lowry, fouling Kawhi on a 3, curry tripping over himself, offensive goaltending. I had a neutral fan message me saying how blatantly the refs tried to get gsw back in the game.

Also no need for excuses on their team. They were plenty deep.sucks to miss KD and klay for that time, but raps went 7 deep and at full health the warriors go even deeper.

Looney/cousins/bogut
Green/ jerebko
KD/Iggy
Klay/livington/alfonzo
Curry/cook

Iggy/cousins off the bench. Csnt really feel sympathy there.

It was a good series but lets not go make excuses for GS like they haven't typically been on the right side of luck.

I 100% agree with everything here. Anyone who argues that the injury bug makes this hollow has a selective short term memory. The Warriors have benefited so much in recent years from injuries to other teams.

The 16-17 Spurs might actually beat the Warriors if Kawhi doesn’t get hurt by Zaza.
The 14-15 Cavs probably beat the Warriors in the Finals if Love and Kyrie don’t get hurt.
The 17-18 Rockets had a high probability of beating the Warriors if Paul didn’t get hurt.

Injuries always happen. If you make it to the Finals, you deserve it. It doesn’t matter what happened along the way (unless cheating was involved). All Finals teams deserve it as they went through brutal gauntlets to get there.

[blind prophet]

I've been annoyed about the mighty Warriors for awhile now. Just tired of them. No not hate like the Lakers, but enough was enough.

So I was pulling for the Rockets first, then the Raps in the finals.

[bleeds_purple]

I was disappointed in the outcome, and found that this was a very hollow victory. The Warriors were on the short end of injuries obviously and some of the officiating.

The 3 or even 4 superstar model doesn't work though as the Warriors 6-9 rotation players were generally very poor, and that was the key difference.

I hope the Kings were studying the Toronto team composition as that seems to be the new model.

It definitely felt hollow.

If Klay doesn't go out I think this goes 7 and I would have favored the Warriors. Kawhi looked like he was wearing down as the series went along.

A healthy Warriors would have mopped the floor with Toronto if we're being honest. Everyone saw how different the spacing was when they swapped out Looney for KD and that was with a hobbled KD. There's no way Toronto has a chance under those circumstances.

It goes to show how stupid that team is with KD on it. Even with him out they were right there for the title and probably pull it out if Klay didn't go down. I really wish he stayed in because it could have lead to an epic ending of the series. Oh well.

But the bold is just crazy. 3 titles in 5 years "doesn't work"? Please give me not working all day long if that's the case.

[bleeds_purple]

Anyone who argues that the injury bug makes this hollow has a selective short term memory. The Warriors have benefited so much in recent years from injuries to other teams.

The 16-17 Spurs might actually beat the Warriors if Kawhi doesn’t get hurt by Zaza.
The 14-15 Cavs probably beat the Warriors in the Finals if Love and Kyrie don’t get hurt.
The 17-18 Rockets had a high probability of beating the Warriors if Paul didn’t get hurt.

Injuries always happen. If you make it to the Finals, you deserve it. It doesn’t matter what happened along the way (unless cheating was involved). All Finals teams deserve it as they went through brutal gauntlets to get there.

Why would those things be mutually exclusive? It's not that the Raptors don't "deserve it" (whatever that means) its just its plainly clear the patently inferior team won because the superior team was completely devastated by injuries. Luck is involved so congrats to the Raptors for their win.

The year Love and Kyrie were out it felt like the Warriors were simply handed a title. LeBron should have got FMVP because what he did in that series was absolutely heroic. No doubt in my mind that if he had Kyrie in that series he pulls it out.

The Zaza incident was stupid too. Felt robbed as a fan because Kawhi was absolutely on a tear and playing even better than he was this year. I really hope Kawhi comes back with the Raptors to defend the title. If he's healthy I expect him to play better next season. He was clearly hobbled during this series.

The Rockets series...meh. I have no faith in the Rockets. I truly believe they would have found a way to lose even with CP3 healthy.

[enderwilson]

Anyone who argues that the injury bug makes this hollow has a selective short term memory. The Warriors have benefited so much in recent years from injuries to other teams.

The 16-17 Spurs might actually beat the Warriors if Kawhi doesn’t get hurt by Zaza.
The 14-15 Cavs probably beat the Warriors in the Finals if Love and Kyrie don’t get hurt.
The 17-18 Rockets had a high probability of beating the Warriors if Paul didn’t get hurt.

Injuries always happen. If you make it to the Finals, you deserve it. It doesn’t matter what happened along the way (unless cheating was involved). All Finals teams deserve it as they went through brutal gauntlets to get there.

Why would those things be mutually exclusive? It's not that the Raptors don't "deserve it" (whatever that means) its just its plainly clear the patently inferior team won because the superior team was completely devastated by injuries. Luck is involved so congrats to the Raptors for their win.

The year Love and Kyrie were out it felt like the Warriors were simply handed a title. LeBron should have got FMVP because what he did in that series was absolutely heroic. No doubt in my mind that if he had Kyrie in that series he pulls it out.

The Zaza incident was stupid too. Felt robbed as a fan because Kawhi was absolutely on a tear and playing even better than he was this year. I really hope Kawhi comes back with the Raptors to defend the title. If he's healthy I expect him to play better next season. He was clearly hobbled during this series.

The Rockets series...meh. I have no faith in the Rockets. I truly believe they would have found a way to lose even with CP3 healthy.

Not plainly clear cause it's a contradiction to say the "inferior team won". If you think of injuries as part of the calculus of "superior" vs. "inferior" then you have to say that by virtue of remaining healthy, the Raptors were superior. While it would be best for everyone to have all the players make it through every game, all players on the court have to play under the same conditions and the Warriors had the most players go down. Thus making the Warriors the inferior team.

I also see it another way. This is a case of the 2004 NBA Finals where having more talent on your roster does not make you the better all around team. GSW lost both regular season matchups to Toronto. The first was close and GS was without Green or Curry. However, the second was a blowout, in Oakland, and the Warriors had all of their starting players while the Raptors were without Kawahi.

At the very least the Warriors were a victim of their own smugness. For a defending championship team they should have been prepared to win in the regular season with their talent, but they just took it for granted that they would turn it on during the Finals. The consequence was that their regular season record made it so they would have to cede the home court advantage to Toronto and thus, messed up their chance to defend the title.