Kawhi Leonard has managed to do what Vince Carter, Chris Bosh, and DeMar DeRozan have all failed to accomplish in the past – lead the Toronto Raptors to the NBA Finals. Now, the Leonard and the Raptors have a tall task ahead of them, as they will face the Golden State Warriors, who are looking to complete a rare three-peat. However, the Warriors are in some sort of unfamiliar position, with the Raptors entering the Finals with the home-court advantage. Plus, Durant may remain out of the lineup all the way through the series.
Will the Raptors (+210 to win the title) upset Golden State (-280) and spoil the Warriors’ bid for another NBA title? Or will Stephen Curry and company add to their basketball legacy as a dynastic franchise?
The Warriors are no strangers to the NBA Finals. The league’s grandest stage has hosted the Warriors in each of the last five years, with almost the same exact core, minus likely Kevin Durant for the duration of the Finals. Durant has not played a game since Game 5 of the second round of the playoffs against the Houston Rockets due to a seemingly debilitating calf injury. The Warriors, however, did not miss the former league MVP at all in the conference finals series against the Portland Trail Blazers, which Golden State swept with relative ease. That the Warriors brushed aside Portland in such a manner despite missing Durant speaks volume about the defending NBA champions’ resolve and incredibly deep roster. At the same time, Durant’s absence has opened a chance for Stephen Curry to remind everyone why the Warriors had won an NBA title before without Durant. Curry bounced back from a down performance in the Houston series in which he didn’t shot as well as what was expected of him by terrorizing Portland’s defense. In the Blazers series, Curry unloaded 36.5 points per game on 47.1 percent shooting from the field and an insane 42.5 shooting from behind the arc. Most players would regress to the mean after shooting that well from deep, but anyone who’d say that Curry will follow the same course is also the same person who hasn’t watched Curry play before. The Raptors have a solid defense to throw at Curry, but it’s one thing to slow down Curry and it’s another once Durant gets cleared to play. The Warriors enter the Finals with an average of 117.3 points per game – the best in the playoffs.
It’s so good to be a Raptors fan these days. After spending the last few years getting decimated by LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Raptors have finally ascended to the top of the East, and they did in an unforgettable fashion – winning four straight games against the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals after falling in a 0-2 series hole. Most of the credit for that huge comeback go to Kawhi Leonard, who has done nothing but add to his case why he deserves to be in the discussion for the best player in the league. Leonard is averaging 31.2 points per game in the playoffs, but getting buckets is far from the only thing the silent superstar is doing at an elite level. As shown in the Milwaukee series, Leonard can cause opposing offenses to decay. A top-end defender that can wreak havoc on that end of the floor, Leonard will have his hands full in trying to contain Curry and company in the Finals. The Raptors can also play suffocating defense as a team, which the Bucks could very much attest to, as they were held below 100 points in regulation time in each of the last four games of the East Finals. That’s not something to scoff at, considering Milwaukee was the highest-scoring team in the league back in the regular season. Toronto is allowing just 99.6 points per game in the playoffs –second best in the postseason or behind the Indiana Pacers, who were ousted in the first round.
Writer’s Prediction
It’s easy to get impressed with Toronto following its manhandling of the Bucks. Kawhi Leonard has turned into a one-man demolition crew, but LeBron James could not take down the Warriors in the Finals (save for that 2016 run), so people who are very high on Toronto right now will have to temper down their expectations. The Warriors know what it takes to win in the Finals, while the Raptors barely have players with experience in the championship round of the NBA. Golden State will finish the series in six games.
