How the Raptors are beating the Warriors at their own game in the NBA Finals

The Warriors were going to have to rely on their “Strength in Numbers” ethos if they were going to win the NBA Finals with Kevin Durant sidelined with his calf injury. Because not even two-time MVP Stephen Curry or his slick-shooting “Splash Brother” Klay Thompson would be enough to overtake the more-than-capable Toronto Raptors squad on the verge of a championship after a decisive victory in Game 4 Friday night on Golden State’s home floor.

They needed productive efforts from their other players on the margins. Like Andre Iguodala’s clinching Game 6 against the Houston Rockets in the conference semifinals when he nailed five 3-pointers. Or Demarcus Cousins’ encouraging Game 2 this series when he finished plus-12 in nearly 28 productive minutes after struggling mightily Game 1 in his return from a quad injury.

The Warriors didn’t get those kind of efforts from their lesser stars the past two games, a pair of uncharacteristic losses at Oracle Arena, and they find themselves down 3-1 needing a victory Monday in Toronto to avoid losing the series in five games — and avoid Friday night’s 105-92 defeat becoming the final game in their arena’s history before moving across the Bay to the Chase Center next October.

In fact, it’s the Raptors who are winning on the strength of their numbers.

“Seems like every game it’s somebody else,” said Draymond Green on Friday, talking about Toronto’s secondary players who have stepped up in big ways.

Friday, aside from Finals MVP favorite Kawhi Leonard’s 36 points, reserve big man Serge Ibaka poured in 20 points and was key in the Raptors’ throttling 37-21 advantage in the third quarter that defined Game 4. On Wednesday, it was Danny Green, who had 18 points thanks to 6-of-10 shooting from 3-point range in a 14-point victory. He and Kyle Lowry combined to score 33 points from beyond the arc.

For the Warriors, their lack of depth without Durant has been their downfall. Iguodala on Friday scored just three points. Cousins had six and four turnovers. Draymond Green nearly posted another triple-double with 10 points, 9 rebounds and 12 assists, but he missed his only 3-point attempt and couldn’t threaten the defense with his shooting. He also had five turnovers. Role players Quinn Cook and Alfonso McKinnie, who have to provide offensive punch with Durant out, combined to shoot 1-of-9 with no makes from distance.

The Raptors don’t have that problem. They upgraded at center with a midseason trade for Marc Gasol, who’s been tough on both sides of the court against the Warriors. Fred VanVleet, who left in the second half with a scary head injury after taking an elbow from Shaun Livingston, provided eight points and made a pair of key 3s.

Curry and Thompson were the Warriors’ only productive players against the Raptors’ top-flight defense. Yet Curry’s 27 points were deceptive. He made just 9 of 22, including 2 of 9 from 3, and seemed lethargic following his 47-point performance Wednesday, when he hoisted 31 shots in 43 minutes. He had just eight points in the first half and many of his buckets came after the outcome was decided.

Thompson paced Golden State with 28 points in a much-needed showing after missing the last game with a hamstring injury.

“I give them the credit,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “(The Raptors) have just played really well offensively, and they got a lot of threats out there, a lot of shooters, a lot of passers. So they’re playing well, and we have got to do better.”

Leonard’s steady presence has been a theme throughout the series. He’s averaging 30.8 points through four games, and Toronto needed all 14 of his points in the first quarter to avoid a pending avalanche that seemed inevitable. The Warriors dialed up their defensive intensity and were poised to defend their home court as they have so well during their string of five straight trips to the Finals.

Yet while the energy in the building was headed toward a Golden State blowout, the Raptors ended the first quarter down just 23-17, with Leonard accounting for 83 percent of his team’s output. It proved to be crucial, because his teammates picked up the slack after halftime to pull away.

“Within that first quarter, I still was passing the ball,” Leonard said. “I wanted my teammates to stay in a rhythm and know that I’m going to give them the ball when they’re open.”

That led to 12 second-half points from Ibaka and 13 from swing man Pascal Siakam, leaving the Warriors with only Curry and Thompson to try to carry Golden State’s vulnerable offense.

“They did a good job in the second half of moving the ball and finding the open man,” said Kerr. “They hit eight threes in the second half after we did a good job on them in the first, and so the ball started moving and they found Serge in the pockets and in the middle of the paint several times, and he had a great game.”

On the bright side for the two-time defending champs, Durant could still return for Game 5 — and they know what it’s like to be down 3-1 in a series. They faced a similar challenge in the 2016 conference finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The key differences, of course, are the elevated stakes and not having home-court advantage. The Warriors will have to win both road games in Toronto to escape with a seven-game victory, rather than win two at home as they did in 2016.

It was the next series the Warriors lost to the LeBron James-led Cavaliers after blowing a 3-1 lead in the Finals. Toronto, having never hosted the Finals before this series, will surely provide an incredible atmosphere Monday that will make it tough to force a Game 6 back in Oakland.

“It’s not a good feeling right now, obviously,” Curry said. “We have been on both sides of it. And for us it’s an opportunity for us to just flip this whole series on its head, and you got to do it one game at a time. It sounds cliché, and for us that’s literally the only way we’re going to get back in this series, is give everything we got for 48 minutes, everybody that sets foot on that floor in Game 5.”

Green wouldn’t mind flipping the national narrative surrounding the Warriors given their chance at avenging their loss to Cleveland by blowing the two-game advantage in that 2016 championship series.

“That’s important to have that pride, to have the faith in what we’re capable of,” Green said.

“We got to win one game. We win one, then we’ll build on that. But I’ve been on the wrong side of 3-1 before, so why not make our own history.”

This story was originally published June 7, 2019 at 10:58 PM.