The Toronto Raptors have won the 2019 NBA Finals.
The Raptors pulled out the Game 6 victory over the Warriors, winning the series 4-2. Masai Ujiri‘s decision to shake up arguably the franchise’s most successful team in order to bring in Kawhi Leonard pays the ultimate dividend: An NBA Championship.
Ujiri’s work deserves recognition for more than just the Leonard acquisition. Drafting Pascal Siakam, recognizing Fred VanVleet‘s potential, and making the decision to stand pat with Kyle Lowry at point guard are among the shrewd moves the executive made to put the franchise in this position.
Golden State saw Kevin Durant return from a calf ailment only to fall to an Achilles injury during the series. Kevon Looney was in and out of the lineup, and Klay Thompson missed one game and parts of two others. With injuries piling up, the Warriors simply didn’t have the depth to match up with a complete Raptors team.
Leonard takes home a Finals MVP for the second time in his career, having won the award during the Spurs’ run in 2014.
Congrats Toronto Raptors!
Best team won.
Healthiest team won
Health is apart of performance. Some people love “what ifs” though
I’m the biggest Warriors fan that ever lived. We’ve benefited from many many unfortunate injuries to the other side over the last 5 years so yes in this case there’s no excuses.
The best team won.
injuries are in today game. you have 15 spots on a roster for a reason. the gsw first win came against LeBron James and oh wait it was just LeBron. Love and Irving were hurt and didnt play. fast foward a year. cavs are healthy and they beat the 73 win warrirors. warriros are butt hurt and have to sign another superstar to win 2 championships. warriros arnt that great, they need KD to win championships. 2017 gsw 5 allstars vs 2 all stars. 2018 5 allstars vs 1 allstar. 2019 4 allstars and former all star (boogie) vs 2 allstars. and still lose.
this SHOULD OF been a 5 game series. game 5 warriros won by only 1 point and scored 15 more 3pointers than the raptors. thats just sad. warriors are trash ha
And if they wanna talk injuries and opportunities, more than likely if Chris Paul was healthy last year we wouldn’t even be talking about a back to back.. But what ifs could go on forever.
best health team won.
Gotta give GSW props for battling missing 2 of the top 3 players. To bad they weren’t healthy or we would be talking about a 3 peat. Now Kwahi signs elsewhere !
Gotta give TOR props for beating a team that advanced to the finals 5 years in a row with only 1 superstar compared to 3. Even with Durant out 2 superstars on 1 superstar and TOR still won. Huh weird. If it were just Steph and Kawhi TOR would’ve won. Better team won.
Klay, KD, DMC, Iggy & Looney, were all injured dude, Toronto won against GSW B team, simple as. I am not a Warrior fan by any stretch of the imagination, did like them in the 80’s & 90’s not so much now… but still I think if they were healthy they win in 4 or 5 if they played relax, unfortunately in sports many times the best team doesn’t win, but nothing for it, GSW will be there again next year & Toronto without Kawhi might very well be out of the post season picture a la Cleveland this year!
It doesn’t matter if they beat the a team, b team or z team. All that matters is they’re the champions
shut the f%$# up. next man up- thats why rosters have 15 players on it. gsw might only have 2 championships if kyrie and kevin love didnt get hurt the first time the teams played each other
GSW will be Curry and Green next year, they will be lucky to lose in the Western Conference finals.
We the champs
Figures you’d get on that bandwagon JD. Gonna order a $93 sweater too cause your jays and sens won’t win for a long time so spend the money now.
Think about the players on this Toronto roster. Kawhi comes with something to prove. Lowry gets his best friend traded away out of nowhere. Siakam grows leaps and bounds. Gasol and Ibaka finally reach the top after being close so many times. Danny Green was almost an afterthought to some in the KL-DD trade. FVV is a UFA. Jeremy Lin rights his name in history as a Asian player winning a final. One of the most memorable teams in my mind. Congrats Raptors!
Yes well said. I’ve been so critical of Kyle Lowry and he comes out firing and on fire game 6. Nice job stepping up in a big game.
Warriors in 4 btw. We the North We the NBA champs
First big puppy, then darant, then Looney, then clay…I had a rough week
And then a terrible accident that left you incapable of spelling
You have to wonder if this is the beginning of the end of the Warriors dynasty. Now I don’t expect them to fall off like the Cavs by any means, but maybe gradually drifting down the standings like the Spurs. It just seems like with the end of the decade coming up it feels like the NBA is nearly ready for a change at the top.
Big difference between the Cavs and the GSW. Cavs lost Kyrie and then LBJ departed.
Well there is a chance that GS loses both Klay and KD and Curry is left alone like Kevin Love. It’s not likely that happens, especially with the injuries, but it is possible. Although with the injuries, even if both re-sign, the Warriors will be without them next season. They could have a serious drop off.
I’m confident that klay and curry will be warriors for life. If his recovery goes well, I could see klay returning for the playoffs, provided we qualify. But there will certainly be a drop off without he and Durant
$$$ too much to keep it together no matter what they say, they won’t pay 175M in just luxury taxes. Durant is now most likely to leave instead of Draymond. I could see them keeping Boogie simply bc an offseason of rehab maybe he returns to form. I’m skeptical on that but they have limited options outside of trading Iggy and Draymond.
Like what Top-30 player us available for Iggy n Draymond… K Love?
Love would be the best bet in that scenario, but I doubt Iggy and Green would be wanted by the Cavs. Green seems like the most likely Warriors player to fall into the category of a “system star” and I really don’t know what kind of trade value he even has. I seriously doubt that combo gets anywhere close to a top 30 player. It’s not getting Beal.
Maybe you could get Andre Drummond for the pair if you took back Jon Leuer or Langston Galloway with him. Dray is from Mich State, so who knows? Maybe the Spurs part with Aldridge or DeRozan if they want to switch things up, but I doubt they will with Pop sticking around.
It could be tough.
I would take Draymond for Beal instantly. But he won’t be offered. Iguadala would probably lose interest on a non-playoff team so his market is reduced.
GSW will still max Klay. I doubt Durant stays now.
I think KD will stay now, Klay was never going anywhere no matter what happened.
The KD injury is the deal breaker here…it is a career changing injury…he will miss the whole next season…and his legs will never be the same again the only thing that’s on his side is the fact he doesn’t carry any weight…
That leaves KD in the position of, the next contract he signs WILL be the biggest one he will EVER sign again…he will take the extra year and the extra 70 or 80 million that GS can (and will sadly) offer…
He might be KD but he will not be the same KD when he returns…GS gives him a team that can still be successful and…now with this years Finals loss…justification likely in his eyes too…
Long story short he needs to take the money now and he will…because he would understand the risk and he already passed on his first supermax contract to…be a winner…
The ability of an on-court basketball player to just stand and watch a potentially game-winning shot cannot be underestimated.
In the huddle Kerr should have specifically pointed out to Quin Cook, ¡Now when the shot goes up, move into position for a possible long rebound. Then try to score any shot!¡
Against Cleveland, GSW nearly always got the long rebounds. Not this series.
But I lost no money this year, yay.
I didn’t see GSW try for a single offensive rebound the whole game. Possession is a pretty big part of the game.
Looney had an excuse… His arms did not lift well.
Sincere congrats to the Raptors. Salute to the GSWs. The GM gambled and was rewarded.
Great win… It’s going to take decades to forget the giant asterisk in that banner.
*on
How many asterisks do the Warriors have on their banners?
All of them, all the *
Exactly
They ended up beating a team that would have been lucky to win 30 games in the west.
Kawhi is SO out of there.
Jonny… 30 might be a stretch I’d say 25. Of course Kwahi leaves 1 and done.
As a Warriors fan, I’d like to congratulate the Toronto Raptors on winning the championship! It hurts me to say, but they truly looked like the better team this year. We have been assisted by injuries in previous championship runs, so anyone using that as an excuse needs to put things in perspective. With that being said, as an NBA fan, those injuries were devastating. Wishing KD and klay a quick and successful recovery.
Well said. I was on pins and needles all playoffs and that’s all you can ask for as a fan. To watch great games, be excited and entertained. All that happened this year.
Congrats to the Toronto Raptors and to Kawhi Leonard who went from the depths of depression and injury and a new city and Rose to the very top.
As an SDSU alumni, I have always been a fan of Kawhi. He prevented the heat from three peating with the spurs and now he has stopped the warriors 3peat with the raptors. The dude is insanely talented and humble
I felt like the NBA was pushing the Toronto narrative the whole series. The refs made that fairly apparent with what they were allowing.
The worst part of this win will be the forthcoming music video from Drake. eh.
There were new stories to tell. And Kawhi keeps near-silent which allows people to project things on him that justify their time & energy on spectator sports.
Yes Drake may base a whole album theme on this!
The best thing about the Raptors winning is that we don’t have to go through the trump invite/disinvite ceremony that happens around this time of year. I have a feeling Justin Trudeau will have ZERO problem inviting the Raptors to Ottawa regardless of their feelings toward him.