https://torontosun.com/sports/basketbal ... ing-injury ZICARELLI: NBA Finals tainted by boorish fans, K.D.'s injury
BY FRANK ZICARELLI
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: JUN 12, 2019
At some point in the next few days, perhaps as early as Thursday night, the Raptors will be hoisting the Larry O’Brien Trophy as a nation goes even wilder than it has during this wild post-season run.
Whether it plays out in Game 6 back in the Bay Area or back home in Toronto Sunday night in Game 7, it’s inevitable the Raptors will be crowned champs.
And good on them and good for the many long-suffering fans of the franchise who had to sit through some wretched stretches of basketball during the team’s 24-year run.
But no mistake how this will be remembered as a tainted title, an NBA Finals made even more sullied by the pathetic, tasteless and classless cheering by the clueless fans in attendance for Game 5 when Kevin Durant left with an injury early in the second quarter.
Even a half-brain could see how Durant was favouring the same leg in the same area he hurt more than a month ago against Houston, coincidentally also in Game 5.
Only a complete idiot, and there are many, would dare defend the fans’ reaction when Durant tried to take Serge Ibaka off the dribble.
Before he left, Durant scored 11 points in 12 minutes.
Had Durant been healthy from the start, the NBA Finals would have been the coronation of a Golden State three-peat.
Had this team been healthy, this NBA Finals matchup would been produced a sweep, at worst a five-game series win by Golden State.
The Warriors haven’t been healthy coupled by the boorish and childish reaction by those in attendance, we’re left with one conclusion — a tainted title.
It’s going to happen because these Warriors are too depleted with too much being asked from the Splash Brothers, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, were simply brilliant in helping the Warriors stave off elimination.
The Warriors are now back home as Oracle Arena pays witness to its final hoops tip, a place where the Raptors have won all three meetings this season, including two in a row in the NBA Finals.
In a few days, the poor decision by Nick Nurse to call a timeout late in the fourth quarter with the Raptors rolling, the lack of execution on both ends of the floor by Toronto in Game 5, the Durant injury and the subsequent repercussions will all be forgotten, neatly placed to the deepest backburner because celebrations across Canada will follow and a long-awaited parade through the streets of Toronto will ensue.
A tainted title is still a title and no one can ever take it away from the Raptors and their fan base.
It’s just a matter of time before the jubilation begins.
END OF A DYNASTY
Five straight appearances in the NBA Finals, no telling what this Warriors group will look like when the 2019-20 season tips off, but the bond players have forged will be is long lasting.
In the stunning aftermath of Monday night’s win, the loss of Durant resonated throughout Golden State’s locker room.
As you might expect, players were trying to reconcile the highs of posting a win and the lows of losing such an elite talent in Durant.
“We’ve seen it,’’ veteran wing Andre Iguodala said. “We’ve gone through it before with teammates. (Andrew) Bogut went down a couple of years ago in Game 5. Steph has gone down before in the playoffs. Klay has gone down in the playoffs. Kevon (Looney).
“We always talk about how this team is with one another, but people still don’t really grasp what we’re talking about. When we say this is like a real brotherhood, a team, people have no clue what goes into that and how we feel about each other.
“What we’ve been able to accomplish with so much thrown at us that’s so negative kind of actually strengthens us a little bit.”
On one side, you can see how this proud Warriors team will rally around the duress of Durant, emboldened by the resiliency shown by injured players who try to extract everything they have.
On the other side, you can also see how the mounting adversity could known their spirits down.
Being at home in a series where the road team has won four in a row in front of a crowd that will see their beloved Warriors play their final game in Oakland before moving across the Bay to San Francisco, it may prove inspiration.
Once the emotion fades, the Warriors have to play basketball and the Raptors are better, which explains this feeling of inevitability.
“I don’t know,’’ said Curry when asked how the Warriors can regroup, if at all. “I mean, it’s going to be a rough go in terms of just trying to recalibrate. We have been up … until this point it’s been about our hope that he (K.D.) could play and our hope to stay alive in this series, the emotional roller coaster what (Monday night) was.
“Get on this flight (Tuesday), go back to the drawing board when we get home, and I think the biggest thing, the biggest advantage is being at Oracle Arena one more time, where our fans can really get behind us, and we’re going to have to will ourselves for another 48 minutes to stay alive. And whatever it’s going to take from every single guy in our jersey.
“So I don’t know really what … if there’s going to be a speech in the locker room, if there’s going to need to be words at all. We understand the moment and I think we can rally, considering how the second half went (in Game 5).”
PULL UP JUMPERS
In Game 5, the Warriors made 20 three-pointers, the second-highest total in an NBA Finals game. The Finals record is 24 three-pointers made by Cleveland against Golden State on June 9, 2017… Curry passed Dwyane Wade, Tim Duncan, Bob Pettit, Bob Cousy and Larry Bird to move into 15th place on the career NBA Finals scoring list. Curry now has 720 Finals points.
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