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Raptors vs. Warriors: Game 4 Stats and NBA Finals 2019 Game 5 Schedule, Odds
June 8, 2019
With one more win, the Toronto Raptors would secure their first world title in franchise history. With one more loss, the Golden State Warriors will lose not only this series, but perhaps their yearslong stranglehold on the NBA.
The teams will meet again Monday night for Game 5 (9 p.m. ET on ABC), back north of the border. The Raptors are early three-point favorites, per VegasInsider.com.
Both teams moved to the brink—of ecstasy on Toronto's side, of catastrophe on Golden State's—with the Raptors' 105-92 road win over the Warriors on Friday.
Kawhi Leonard scored a game-high 36 points, snared a game-high 12 rebounds and swiped a game-high four steals, and that might not even capture how dominant he was. The former (soon-to-be two-time?) Finals MVP buried half of his 22 field-goal attempts, all nine of his free throws and five of his nine long-range looks.
Toronto outscored Golden State by 13 points across Leonard's 41 minutes. The contest was dead even over the seven minutes he sat.
"He played amazing," Stephen Curry said of Leonard. "He hit every big momentum shot in that third quarter. It gave them the lead. And then kept the separation. They took control of the game. It's one of those nights where you play with a lot of energy and you start to build momentum and then the wheels fall off a little bit."
Leonard was the only Raptor with a pulse through the first period. While the rest of the team managed just three points on 1-of-13 shooting, he put up 14 on 5-of-8. His teammates returned the favor in the next frame, when he missed all four of his shots, but they hit 9-of-17.
Toronto went into intermission down 46-42, but it could've been much worse.
The Raptors kept themselves within striking distance, and Leonard pounced on the opportunity. He opened the second half with a triple, a steal and another three, a tone-setting sequence for the rest of the proceedings.
"Kawhi Leonard came out and hit two big F-you shots to start the half," Fred VanVleet told reporters. "There's no defense for that. There's no schemes for that. Two big-boy shots we came out of the half with, two back-to-back threes ... that just kinda let you know how we were gonna approach the third quarter and the rest of the half."
The Warriors, still without Kevin Durant (calf strain), could never find an answer.
Klay Thompson (28 points, six triples) and Kevon Looney (10 points, six rebounds in 20 minutes) both hit the ground running in their first games back from injury. But the rest of the roster couldn't keep up.
Curry shot just 40.9 percent from the field and 22.2 percent from deep. Draymond Green coughed up five of the team's 17 turnovers. DeMarcus Cousins had as many giveaways as rebounds (four). Andre Iguodala scored three points in 38 minutes.
Overall, the Warriors managed just a 29.6 percent conversion rate from three and a 66.7 percent mark at the line. Golden State had a minuscule 96.8 offensive rating. As NBA.com's John Schuhmann noted, that was the team's least efficient offensive performance this postseason and third-least efficient in their 26 Finals games over the last five years.
The Raptors now have three chances to dethrone the Dubs, who don't figure to fold easily.
"These guys have been to the Finals five straight years for a reason," Warriors coach Steve Kerr told reporters. "They're unbelievably competitive. And they're together, and they're going to fight. They're going to fight the whole way."
That's probably the case, but the Warriors look like they're running on fumes. The will-he, won't-he question with Durant might be taking a large mental and emotional toll on the team, which has been without its top scorer for a month.
Golden State is in a brutal spot. At this point, Durant's possible return seems like the team's biggest hope. At the same time, there's no guarantee he can come back, and even if he did, no one knows the effects of his month-plus injury.
While the Warriors know 3-1 leads can be lost in the Finals, they also understand how rare that is.
The Raptors are in the driver's seat, and they might be on parade floats sooner than later.