How about that Kawhi Leonard trade? Masai Ujiri the Raptors President of Basketball Operations just pulled off the trade of the year. Think about it Kawhi Leonard only played in nine games the previous season as he was still recovering from the right quadriceps injury he suffered during the 2017 WCF while a member of the San Antonio Spurs where he took a jump shot and he landed awkwardly on the foot of Warriors center Zaza Pachulia where he never played again in the WCF. Kawhi Leonard was wanting out of San Antonio so on July 18th 2018 Masai Ujiri traded Raptors fan favorite and franchise player DeMar DeRozan along with Jakob Pöltl and and a 2019 protected first round pick in exchange for Danny Green and Kawhi Leonard. Both Danny Green and Kawhi Leonard have championship experience with the Spurs as Kawhi Leonard was the 2014 NBA Finals MVP when the Spurs beat the Miami Heat in five games and prevented them from a three peat.During the 2017-18 season the Raptors finished with the best record in the Eastern Conference as they went 59-23 but in the playoffs in the second round once again they lost to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers this time in a four game sweep. A couple of days after that head coach Dwane Casey who went on to win NBA Coach of the Year Award was fired and replaced by NIck Nurse who was one of the assistant coaches was promoted to Head Coach in June. During the 2018-19 season and it was February the 7th which happened to be trade deadline day where the Ratpors made a huge trade for Memphis Grizzlies Center Marc Gasol the younger brother of Pau Gasol who won two championships with the La Lakers with Kobe Bryant in 2008-09 and 2009-10. In that Gasol trade the Raptors sent Jonas Valančiūnas, CJ Miles, Delon Wright and a 2024 second round pick. Raptors President Masai Ujiri should win NBA Executive of the Year for making these bold moves which paid off in an NBA Championship.
The Raptors finished with the second best record in the NBA with a 58-24 record in the first season of Nick Nurse. Remember in round one of the 2019 NBA Playoffs the Raptors lost game one to the Orlando Magic? Remember when the Raptors were trailing the Philadelphia 76ers 2-1 in the Eastern Conference Semifinals? Remember in game 7 of in that same round against the 76ers where Kawhi Leonard hit that amazing shot over 76ers center Joel Embiid which bounced around the rim three times and went in? Remember when the Toronto Raptors were down 2-0 to the team with the best record in all of the NBA in the Milwaukee Bucks who had the likely MVP in Giannis Antetokounmpo and a lot of people thought series was over? Don’t count out these Toronto Raptors and they were able to win the Eastern Conference and play the two time defending Champion Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals.
So going into game six with a possible championship on the line for the Raptors they would have to win again at Oracle Arena one last time as this is the final NBA game at Oracle Arena and the Raptors are already 3-0 in Oakland which includes their regular season game in late November. Some people thought if the Raptors lose game six would lose game seven at home and become the second team in NBA Finals history to blow a 3-1 series lead since the Warriors in 2015-16 which finished that season with an NBA record of 73 wins in the regular season but fell in game 7 at home to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers as Cleveland completed the comeback. But without Kevin Durant for the rest of the NBA Finals and the Raptors still leading the series 3-2 I still have faith in them but I was nervous because the defending champion in any sport won’t go away without a fight.
The Warriors game 5 victory came with a huge cost as Kevin Durant who came back from a calf injury got hurt again as he suffered an Achilles tendon injury. Well the injury bug hit the Warriors again with 2:22 left in the third quarter as Klay Thompson was going up for a dunk he was fouled by Danny Green as Klay grabbed his left knee as he was in a lot of pain and that injury didn’t look good. First he left heading to the locker room but someone from the Warriors medical staff told him if he wanted to return to the game he had to shoot both of his foul shots which he did and he didn’t return as later that night it was announced he suffered a torn ACL injury and that couldn’t have come at a much worse time for the Dubs. Klay was having a great game with 30 points going 8-12 from the field along with 4-6 from three and 5 rebounds. Man hate to see injuries to star players in the NBA. Both Klay and KD will both miss most of next season and we don’t even know where they will play next season because they are both upcoming free agents in July.
So with Klay out for the game the Warriors still had Steph Curry who scored 21 points but only shot 6-17 from the field and 3-11 from three but he had 7 assists. Draymond Green had another triple double with 11 points,19 rebounds and 13 assists but he 8 of the Warriors 16 turnovers. DeMarcus Cousins had 12 points and 5 rebounds but the Warriors once again didn’t get enough help from their bench. Kyle Lowry set the tone for the Raptors as he scored the teams first 11 points from the field as he finished with 26 points along with 7 rebounds and 10 assists. Pascal Siakam also finished with 26 points as he grabbed a team high 10 rebounds. Kawhi Leoanrd only scored 22 points with 6 rebounds but the Raptors got huge contributions from the bench once again as Serge Ibaka scored 15 off the bench and how about Fred VanVleet who scored 12 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter which included a huge three pointer with 3:44 left in the basketball game to give the Raptors a 104-101 lead that the Raptors never relinquished. Fred VanVleet played great defense on Steph Curry.
This game had a very crazy ending to it. After the Raptors committed a huge turnover with 9.6 seconds left Steph Curry and the Warriors had a chance to win the game and force a game 7. Down 111-110 Steph Curry in his playoff career was 0-7 on game winning shots during the last 20 seconds of a playoff game. Curry got a great look the shot didn’t go in and it looked like Kawhi Leonard got possession of the ball but right near center court the ball was still loose and Draymond Green of the Warriors tried to call timeout when he got possession of the ball but the problem was his team didn’t have any and that results in a technical foul against the Golden State Warriors. Remember in the 1993 NCAA Championship game between the Michigan Wolverines and the North Carolina Tar Heels Chris Webber of Michigan not only got away with a clear travel but he was the one who called the timeout when Michigan had none as his team lost the Championship game to UNC. Back to the NBA Finals game so Kawhi Leonard hit the one shot technical foul shot to put the Raptors up two. The Raptors now have to inbound the ball with 0.9 seconds left and they would dethrone the two-time defending NBA Champion Golden State Warriors. As Kawhi Leonard scored on a layup I thought the game was officially over but Andre Iguodala of the Warriors did foul Kawhi Leonard sending him to the foul line. Kawhi sank both foul shots to make the score 114-110 and for the first time in franchise history after Steph Curry missed a shot at the game the Toronto Raptors are NBA Champions. It’s the First time in NBA history as a team from Canada has won the NBA Championship.
This game had a very crazy ending to it. After the Raptors committed a huge turnover with 9.6 seconds left Steph Curry and the Warriors had a chance to win the game and force a game 7. Down 111-110 Steph Curry in his playoff career was 0-7 on game winning shots during the last 20 seconds of a playoff game. Curry got a great look the shot didn’t go in and it looked like Kawhi Leonard got possession of the ball but right near center court the ball was still loose and Draymond Green of the Warriors tried to call timeout when he got possession of the ball but the problem was his team didn’t have any and that results in a technical foul against the Golden State Warriors. Remember in the 1993 NCAA Championship game between the Michigan Wolverines and the North Carolina Tar Heels Chris Webber of Michigan not only got away with a clear travel but he was the one who called the timeout when Michigan had none as his team lost the Championship game to UNC. Back to the NBA Finals game so Kawhi Leonard hit the one shot technical foul shot to put the Raptors up two. The Raptors now have to inbound the ball with 0.9 seconds left and they would dethrone the two-time defending NBA Champion Golden State Warriors. As Kawhi scored on a layup I thought the game was officially over but Andre Iguodala of the Warriors did foul Kawhi Leonard sending him to the foul line. Kawhi sank both foul shots to make the score 114-110 and for the first time in franchise history after Steph Curry missed the shot at the end of the game the Toronto Raptors are NBA Champions on June 13th 2019. It’s the First time in NBA history as a team from Canada has won the NBA Championship. First time in NBA Finals History that the road team has won five of the six games were won by the road team.
Kawhi Leonard won the NBA Finals MVP for the second time in his career. Kawhi is the third player in NBA history to win the NBA Finals MVP for two different teams joining the likes of NBA Hall of Famer Karrem Abdul-Jabbar with the Milwaukee Bucks in 1971 and the LA Lakers in 1985 and of course LeBron James in 2012 and 2013 and the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016. Kawhi is the first player in NBA history to win Finals MVP from both conferences, he won Finals MVP in 2014 with the San Antonio Spurs against the Miami Heat and now the Toronto Raptors. Kawhi Leonard who had an amazing playoff run scored 732 points in these NBA Playoffs third most behind LeBron James who scored 748 points in last years playoffs and Michael Jordan who scored 759 points in the 1992 Playoffs which led to his second straigh NBA Championship with the Chicago Bulls. Nick Nurse head coach of the Raptors became the ninth rookie head coach in NBA history to win an NBA Championship in his first year as a NBA head caoch and Nurse became the first head coach to win an NBA Championship and an NBA G League Championship. The G league use to be known as the D League is the NBA’s Minor League System for player to devlop in before playing in the NBA.
As we all know not just in the NBA but in any sport it is very hard to three-peat. It was very unfortunate for the Golden State Warriors that two of their best players in Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant suffered very signifcant injuries but injuries are part of the game and I think the Warriors looked fatigued at times during these NBA Finals but you have to give the Toronto Raptors a lot of credit. Kawhi Leonard is the three-peat killer, when he was with the San Antonio Spurs they beat the Miami Heat in five games in 2014 and now with the Toronto Raptors they beat the Golden State in six games. Patrick McCaw who won two straight championships with the Golden State and now with the Raptors this year as he is on a very distinguish list with NBA ledgends to be part of a three-peat like Bill Russell whose Celtics won 8 straight NBA Championships from the late 1950s to the mid 1960s, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen led the Chicago Bulls on two three-peats 1991-93 and 96-98 and of course Shaq and Kobe with the La Lakers in the early 2000s.
After so many years of underperforming in the NBA Playoffs with the Raptors Kyle Lowry is finally an NBA Champion. Jeremy Lin who barley played with the Raptors in the NBA won an NBA Championship before some big names in the NBA right now like Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, James Harden, Russel Westbrook, Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins who many thought would get a ring after joining the Golden State Warriors last July as a free agent because we all know how good the Warriors. Marc and Pau Gasol are the first set of brothers to each win an NBA Championship, Pau did twice with the LA Lakers in 2009 and 2010 while younger brother just won it all with the Raptors. Congradulations to the Toronto Raptors they did it after being labeled as a huge underdog in these NBA Finals. Now the big question is will Kawhi Leonard remain with the Toronto Raptors who is upcoming free agent this July we are about to find out.