TORONTO — Barring a setback, Golden State Warriors superstar Kevin Durant is expected to return from a right calf strain at some point midway through the NBA Finals, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
There’s some optimism within members of the organization that a Game 3 arrival could be viable, but there’s a stronger possibility that Game 4 is the most logical option, sources said.
Head coach Steve Kerr announced Wednesday that Durant was cleared to take part in individual on-court basketball activities, but the 10-time All-Star — who has missed the past six postseason games — actually began his on-court basketball workouts earlier this week, sources said.
Kevin Durant hasn't played since Game 5 of the West semifinals. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
The 7-foot forward has about three or four days of on-court work under his belt, sources said. His teammates are encouraged by his progress.
Kerr explained that Durant must go through a full practice before he is given the green light to return to action.
Meanwhile, the Raptors had three players register 20 or more points in Pascal Siakam (32), Kawhi Leonard (23) and Marc Gasol (20), with Fred VanVleet leading all reserves with 15 points.
As long as Durant is out of commission, the Warriors’ depth will be tested this series. To make matters worse, Warriors forward Andre Iguodala appeared to injure his leg late in Game 1.
“KD’s an all-time great player on both ends of the floor, so I could sit here and talk for days about what he adds to our roster,” Curry said. “We obviously have proven that when he's out, we can have guys step up and that's going to be the case until he gets back.”
Golden State will not practice on Friday, setting it up potentially for Durant to join Saturday’s session before Game 2 on Sunday. But in the short term, the Warriors must find a way to get by without their star forward.
“If he's out there, he's pretty good, but if he's not out there, we play with the guys we have and we have got enough,” Kerr said. “We have won the last, whatever, six games without him, five, six games. So we have enough, but you play with the guys who are healthy and you go. So we'll see what happens.”
THERE HE IS, mouth agape on the sideline as the camera slowly zooms in on a prolonged expression of disbelief after Fred VanVleet is called for a three-second violation in Game 4 of the Toronto Raptors' first round against the Orlando Magic. There he is again, so animated in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals that he is totally oblivious to Drake applying a reassuring sideline mini-massage to his shoulders, igniting a controversy on the boundaries of celebrities and the proximity of fans to players and coaches.
Now watch him as the Raptors touch down in Milwaukee before Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, descending from the team plane wearing Beats headphones and with a guitar strapped to his back like Bon Jovi on a world tour. We have discovered coach Nick Nurse through a prism of engaging postseason snippets.
And we haven't even discussed the buffalo plaid suits yet.
So, we wonder about this rookie head coach who has guided Toronto into the Finals, whose nomadic coaching journey included multiple stops in the British Basketball League, a duo of D League incarnations and a three-day stint as associate head coach at Iowa State that netted him hundreds of thousands of dollars (more on that later). The general consensus appears to be this dude is fun.
But you don't reach the NBA Finals just by being fun.
"Well, sure," responds Raptors guard Kyle Lowry. "Nick is very laid-back, very chill -- until you don't play hard."
No one was yukking it up when Nurse assembled his team in the film room the day after an embarrassing Game 1 loss to Orlando in the opening round of the playoffs. Nurse had been so jazzed the night before, he'd barely slept. He'd been ready.
Why weren't his players?
After forward Pascal Siakam bumped into Nurse before the session, he warned his teammates as he slid into his seat: "I could tell right away he was really upset," Siakam says. "You could see it in his face. Very tense. Unlike him. He was already riled up before he walked in."
Nurse, enraged by the subpar effort of a group that included veterans Lowry, Kawhi Leonard, Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka and Danny Green, spliced together damning examples of Toronto's lackadaisical approach.
"I had 17 clips I was going to show," Nurse says. "I think I stopped at one. I thought they understood how hard we needed to play because it was the playoffs. Apparently, they didn't."
Nurse made it clear he would not tolerate that. He yelled so loud, and so long, that he lost his voice, his players report. His spittle spewed perilously close to the suddenly attentive -- and surprised -- NBA millionaires.
"It wasn't pretty," Nurse says now. "I don't do that very often. It was by far the biggest bullet I used."
"He lit a fire under us," Green says. "We needed it. Orlando prepared us for Philly, which prepared us for Milwaukee. He got us locked in."
And yet, five weeks later, there they were -- after trouncing the Magic in four straight and besting Philly's four-All-Star lineup -- down by 15 at home to the Bucks in Game 6, their inexperience revealing itself. It didn't help that Leonard had blanked on his first seven 3-point attempts. "I'm watching," confesses team president Masai Ujiri, "and I'm thinking, 'No way in hell we're winning this game.'"
With 5:47 remaining in the third and the score 65-52, Nurse called timeout. He reminded the Raptors that they had made up a deficit like this just days before. He implored them to relax. "He was very composed," reports Leonard, who also spoke in the huddle, encouraging teammates to embrace the moment.
Toronto roared back. The Raptors advanced.
"Nobody is giving us a thing," their coach declared. "We've got to take it ourselves."
NICK NURSE WAS born and raised in the city of Carroll, Iowa, some 90 miles northwest of Des Moines. He was the youngest of nine kids, with five older brothers, so competitive with them that it occasionally brought him to tears.
"At some point in your life, you try to self-reflect and ask yourself, 'Why do I want to win so bad?'" Nurse says. "Then you realize, in my house, if you [didn't] get up and start fighting in the morning, you [wouldn't] get any cereal -- or a bowl or a spoon."
When Nurse wasn't grappling for Grape-Nuts, he was absorbing blows from his older siblings in various athletic endeavors. They hardened him, and in 1985 he was the Des Moines Register Athlete of the Year, headed to Northern Iowa to play basketball, the guy who shouted "Follow me!" -- and everyone did.
"When I first took the job at Northern Iowa," explains his former coach Eldon Miller, "I called a team meeting. Five people showed up. Nick was one of them. I could quickly tell from that meeting that the four other guys looked to Nick to speak for them."
Nurse roomed with Greg McDermott, another Iowa boy. They became fast friends and snuck off in their free time to bet on the greyhounds or hustle guys on the golf course in two-ball tournaments.
The two helped lay the groundwork for a resurgence at Northern Iowa that culminated the year after they graduated in 1990 with its first NCAA appearance. Miller identified Nurse as the rare college player who didn't just learn the plays but actually took the time to understand why they made sense. McDermott recalls Nurse's precise shooting regimen, which never wavered. He graduated as the all-time 3-point leader in shooting percentage (.468) -- then plotted a way to stay in the game.
It came in the form of an overseas opportunity with the Derby Storm in the British Basketball League as player-coach. The team traveled to all its games in a creaky white van, but there was a problem: Nurse, at 23, wasn't old enough to secure the rental to take the wheel.
"I had to make my center Martin Ford drive," Nurse says. "He wasn't happy about it, either."
When he wasn't navigating the challenge of coaching players who were as many as eight years older, Nurse attempted to keep the van up and running. One evening after midnight, when it broke down on a deserted, winding road in the British countryside, Nurse took stock of his career choices.
"That was one of those moments that made you scratch your head," Nurse admits. "First of all, you're thinking, 'Where in the hell am I?' and second of all, 'What the hell am I doing here?'"
Regardless, in four years overseas, he compiled a 276-103 record. And during his travels, he came across a young Nigerian player who showed promise for Nurse's former team, the Derby Storm. His name: Masai Ujiri. "All I remember about Nick," Ujiri says, "was that he was really young and, if you listened to the people over there, really brilliant."
Nurse migrated back to the United States and, in 2007, landed a job in his beloved state of Iowa with the Iowa Energy D-League team. His old roommate McDermott was also climbing the coaching ranks, landing a job at Iowa State. Their mutual friends couldn't help but compare.
"I loved every job I had," Nurse says. "People asked me, 'Why aren't you doing something more important?' When I was doing well in the D-League, they were like, 'Why can't you get an NBA job? Or a college job?' I don't think people thought much of what I was doing. That's fine.
"I was learning. Not just X's and O's, but team dynamics."
One of the perks of the D-League was a chance for players to sign up for free continuing education. Nurse became the rare coach who cashed in, taking an online course from Michigan State on interpersonal communication and conflict management.
In 2010, after Nurse had netted a division title for the Iowa Energy, McDermott invited him to be his associate coach at Iowa State.
Nurse jumped at the chance and spent the next 24 hours in meetings and film sessions and booking trips overseas to recruit in England and Greece. The night before he left, he dined with McDermott in an Ames restaurant where the equipment manager showed up with his Iowa State swag -- sweatshirts, pants, polos and sneakers. "I told him, 'Throw it in my office; I'll get it when I come back,'" Nurse recalls.
Three days into his new job, after scouting two prospects in Manchester, England, Nurse got a call from McDermott. Creighton coach Dana Altman had accepted the job at Oregon, and McDermott had decided to replace Altman at Creighton, where his son Doug "Dougie McBuckets" McDermott would join him.
"Those guys from England? Tell 'em you're recruiting for Creighton now," McDermott informed him.
Nurse's head was spinning. Somehow, it didn't feel right. He canceled his trip to Athens, returned to Iowa and talked with Cyclones athletic director Jamie Pollard, who told Nurse that he had a candidate in mind to replace McDermott but that if that person didn't take the head-coaching job, Nurse would be considered for it.
"It was a wild 24 hours," Nurse says. "I had only been hired as the associate coach three days earlier, and now all the media is circling my house thinking I'm the guy."
He wasn't. Pollard tabbed Fred Hoiberg for the job, and suddenly, Nurse was unemployed. After an awkward negotiation, the school gave him a $175,000 buyout.
"He became the highest-paid state employee per day in Iowa history," McDermott says.
"Yeah," Nurse counters, "but I never got my gear."
NICK NURSE BELIEVES most things happen for a reason. Because the Iowa Energy hadn't found a replacement for him yet, he was able to return to his old job -- and lead them to a championship. He won another D-League title with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in 2013, and Dwane Casey hired him as a Raptors assistant on the strength of his offensive creativity.
"For the short time we were together at Iowa State," McDermott says, "we were running a bunch of different sets with a lot of counters to them. I showed them to Nick once, and I could see the wheels turning. Next thing I know, he's saying, 'How about if we move these two guys over here and invert the bigs..."
"I had been running that stuff for eight to 10 years, and he's tweaking it in a way that I hadn't considered before."
When Ujiri fired Casey last spring, he interviewed a number of candidates, Mike Budenholzer among them. But something kept drawing him back to Nurse, who, in a five-hour second interview at the Beverly Wilshire hotel unveiled his detailed vision for the Raptors, beginning with training camp all the way through to the Finals.
Upon accepting the job, Nurse asked to coach the team's summer league squad. Ujiri warned him that the team was "crap," designed to get OG Anunoby some offensive reps and not much more. "We had no chance from day one," Ujiri says, "but Nick starts ramping these kids up. They're playing so hard, and by the end, he had me so excited about watching them."
And that, according to his players and coaching peers, is the definition of Nick Nurse: a coach with a supple approach to a game that is constantly changing, and an ability to relate to players of all shapes, sizes and bank accounts.
"He's willing to try different things," Siakam says. "A lot of coaches aren't.
"Last year, I wasn't handling the ball. This year, Nick made it a priority. I'm not sure a lot of other coaches would give me that freedom or that trust."
"He's very good at adapting," Gasol says of Nurse. "Some of the things he does are eye-popping. He showed me some rebounding techniques that were really interesting. It sounds simple when you say it, but they make a difference."
While those folks who wanted him to do something "important" are now finally satisfied, Nurse insists basketball is basketball, regardless of the level. Leonard and Lowry are more gifted than his boys from Derby Storm, "but it feels the same to me," Nurse insists. "You learn from all of them."
What we've learned from a pulsating Eastern Conference finals is that Nurse, the offensive innovator, turned the series on its ear with his defensive adjustments. The Bucks ended up scoring just 0.96 points per possession after a made basket in the series, well below their regular-season average of 1.11 (tied for ninth best in the regular season), and Giannis Antetokounmpo, an unstoppable force in the previous round against Boston, was stymied by a wall of Raptors defenders, beginning with the smaller Leonard, Lowry and Green, who absorbed the initial contact from the 7-footer.
"One thing Nick did was challenge us in terms of the physical play," Lowry says. "He made it clear, 'Listen, you have to be here to help. You can't be afraid to get hit.'"
And so it is that the Raptors enter the Finals as heavy underdogs against Golden State, but McDermott is certain that Nurse has conjured up some new wrinkles.
"Nick believes you should throw stuff against the wall and see if it sticks," McDermott says, "because if you aren't throwing anything against the wall, nothing sticks."
Safe to say the guitar-toting, meme-inducing, spittle-spewing coach of the Raptors has found some traction of own. Ujiri claims there's no one (besides Kawhi Leonard) he'd rather have on his side down 15 with the season on the line.
"I say that because Nick really believes," Ujiri says. "So, you believe, too."
Nearly two weeks ago, the Michigan basketball program was rocked by news of John Beilein's departure for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Players like center Jon Teske, who Beilein had recruited to Michigan, were shocked by the move.
"I couldn't really believe it," Teske said Thursday. "Obviously, I had no clue."
As the program embarked upon a nine-day coaching search, the players were left in an unfamiliar and uncertain position, awaiting the arrival of their next head coach.
Their wait ended May 22, when Juwan Howard was hired as head coach.
And although they could have considered other options or transferred to different programs during that nine-day period, Michigan's players chose to stick together.
How? A combination of constant contact among the players staying in Ann Arbor — and plenty of communication as a team.
“A lot of FaceTime calls, long calls, texts, group chats,” said jforward Isaiah Livers. “Just staying connected and making sure everybody’s good every day.”
According to Teske, the players who remained in Ann Arbor after the semester ended tried to take the coaching search "day by day, because we didn't really know what was going to happen."
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Those players worked out together every day and played pickup basketball. They hung out off the court, too.
“It actually made us closer," said wing Adrien Nunez. "We were all going over to each other’s houses, watching basketball games, cooking burgers and stuff like that, so it kinda just made us a more tight-knit group in the end, for real.”
While several players were missing from Ann Arbor, they were still kept in the loop through text messages, video conferences and phone calls.
For Teske, it was important to keep in touch with everyone — especially the younger players.
"A good majority of the younger guys are here," Teske said. "Just being with them every day helped a lot."
When Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel contacted Teske during the coaching search, Teske suggested Manuel talk to other players as well.
"Warde, he called me during this process, I told him it’d be good if he came in and talked to the younger guys, so he did," Teske said. "About the process. Keeping the young guys together, just through this tough time that it was.”
Some, like Livers, never wavered in their commitment to the program.
“Honestly, when I heard both the news, I’m a Michigan man,” Livers said. “There was no other place. It’s my junior year. There’s no reason to go. I have a great opportunity here, so I was excited.”
For now, Michigan has yet to experience any attrition as a result of the coaching search — which could be key for the future of the team, as the Wolverines already have three open scholarships for the 2019-20 season.
“I wanted to hear (what they were thinking)," Livers said. "Most guys were like, 'Oh, we’re just going to wait (to see) who comes in.' For now, it looks like everybody’s happy and nobody’s really going to make that decision (to leave). I told them if you are going to make that decision, just let me know so I can know ahead of time.”
Listen: The Michigan Rant podcast: The Juwan Howard era begins
While there was initially some uncertainty, that later gave way to excitement when the players found out Howard would be the next head coach. According to Livers, "everybody was happy."
After accepting the job, Howard called each player individually and began to develop relationships. Thursday morning, he talked in-person with the team for the first time during a meeting that took place about 10 a.m. According to the players, there wasn't much basketball discussed. It was mostly about getting to know each other.
A couple hours later, the players sat on the floor of Crisler Center and watched as their new coach teared up during his formal introduction. They watched as he took to the stage and cried some more.
It only left even more of a positive impression.
“It just made us even more excited," Livers said. "You’ve got your head coach up there crying, before he even gets called up there, that just shows he’s going to put in a lot of work. He’s really going to push his players to be great. Even off the court, he mentioned that earlier, he just wants our players to be good people. No matter what you do, he’s going to support us.”
Michigan's players are in the process of getting to know Howard. They're unsure of what the future will look like, especially when it comes to Xs and Os. But they're excited about what's next.
“I can’t get Coach B back. Obviously, I came here with his recruiting, but at the same time, I’m going to embrace the new situation," Nunez said. "Everyone’s like, 'How are you having such a positive outlook?' but we have Juwan Howard as our head coach.
"Who doesn’t want to play for a guy who’s part of the Fab Five, who coached at the Heat, who has so many connections in the NBA, knows so much about basketball? It’s a positive.”
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Contact Orion Sang: osang@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @orion_sang. Read more on the Michigan Wolverines and sign up for our Wolverines newsletter.
TORONTO -- When you are champions, you stick with what got you here. For the Golden State Warriors, the formula in these 2019 playoffs had been fairly transparent: identify the best player on the opposing team -- see James Harden and Damian Lillard -- and harangue him into a night of frustration and disappointment.
Thus, the blueprint against the Toronto Raptors was to reduce Kawhi Leonard's basketball life to misery, or at the very least considerable discomfort. Blitz him, double him, triple him if necessary, force him to give up the ball and dare the others to beat you.
It was a sound strategy on paper -- except the "others" were not only expecting it, they were aiming to exploit it. So, it was a collection of "complementary" Raptors who vaulted Toronto to win Game 1 of the NBA Finals 118-109 in a raucous Scotiabank Arena, delivering a roundhouse right to a team that so often has seemed invincible.
On a night when Leonard, who had been the most transcendent player in the playoffs, was a mere mortal, players such as Pascal Siakam happily filled the void. Siakam, the 24-year old forward who once was on a path to the priesthood -- until a visit, on a lark, to a summer basketball camp in his native Cameroon detoured him on an improbable basketball journey -- scored 32 points on 14-of-17 shooting. It was a prolific performance that would have been unthinkable two short years ago, when he was a raw, unpolished player who couldn't shoot.
At all.
"I was joking with him the other day," teammate Fred VanVleet told ESPN. "We used to shoot together in my rookie year, and me and the guy rebounding used to duck sometimes because his shots would come off the rim so hard.
"He had some bad misses. But what you are seeing now is the result of a lot of hard work. You can just see his confidence soaring."
The same can be said of VanVleet, who struggled mightily in earlier rounds of the playoffs but, following the birth of his young son, has rediscovered his shooting stroke.
Then there's center Marc Gasol, who heard all the chatter about how this was a poor matchup for him, particularly if DeMarcus Cousins found his way onto the court (he did, in an unremarkable eight-minute cameo). Gasol was also a benefactor of the exorbitant amount of attention paid to Leonard, scoring 20 points and stretching the floor for his teammates on what Warriors coach Steve Kerr termed "dare shots."
"Dare, no dare, if you are open, you shoot them," Gasol said.
Said Van Vleet: "Kawhi has been having such an unbelievable playoff run, I think it would have been disrespectful not to give him a lot of attention. We know that. We've been dealing with that all of these playoffs.
"You can see teams try to balance it -- 'should we help too much; are we not helping enough?' For the rest of us, it means we've got to be ready for the opportunity when the kickouts come."
Even Danny Green, who hadn't drilled a 3-pointer since Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals, hit three of them Thursday night.
And yet, in a spirited Raptors locker room after the game, the topic of discussion was not their marksmen, but a collective defensive effort that held a terrifying Golden State lineup in check.
Stephen Curry (34 points), per usual, got his, but the Raptors took turns bumping and chasing him and his Splash Brother Klay Thompson. They weren't stopped, but contained, and that was good enough.
"We've tried to hang our hat on our defense all year,'' Kyle Lowry said. "One thing about Golden State is you can't give them space. When we did, Steph and Klay made every shot."
It was Curry's 11 first-quarter points that kept Golden State within striking distance in the opening frame. In fact, for all the good vibes the Raptors' shooters were experiencing, the Warriors were constantly lurking. Because the defending champions can score so quickly and in such explosive fashion, even when Toronto pushed the lead to double digits, it never quite felt safe.
But as Siakam continued to wreak havoc in transition, the Raptors were able to maintain their lead wire to wire.
The most critical shot of the night came courtesy of VanVleet with 3:20 to play, shortly after the Warriors had cut the deficit to 10, 108-98. With the shot clock ticking down, VanVleet found himself pinned in the corner and let one fly. The shot rolled halfway down, halfway back up, and finally settled on counting after all.
"Klay didn't leave me as much as I thought he would, so I didn't have a clean look right away,'' VanVleet said. "By the time I thought about it, there was only one second left, so I got a little separation, a little look, a little bit of luck.
"About time, you know? I was in a little slump, but now I've got some of those in the bank."
The Warriors were hardly devastated by the events of Game 1, though they were most certainly irritated by them. They once again exhibited their maddening tendency to be careless with the basketball, and the Raptors transformed their 16 turnovers into 17 points.
Golden State also recognizes it needs to do a better job of limiting Siakam in the open floor and identifying Toronto's shooters.
"Our transition D was horrible,'' Draymond Green said. "You give guys those type of shots, they get comfortable and it's a different beast."
Said Curry: "You can't give [Siakam] any dare shots, and you can't give him any straight-line drives to the basket. That's just an effort thing we all can be more mindful of."
No coach wants to hear their players admit they need to be mindful about more effort; the Warriors' swagger has always been their greatest strength -- and their greatest weakness. And while acknowledging being up 1-0 is better than being down 1-0 -- something this group has never experienced in the Finals -- Shaun Livingston insisted his team embraces these moments. "I like the vibe," Curry said.
The Game 1 loss did one thing, for sure: It quelled the notion the Warriors will cruise to a title with or without Kevin Durant, who probably will miss Game 2 as he continues to heal from his calf strain. Toronto expects to see KD at some point in the series -- and will plan accordingly. As Leonard pointed out, "[Durant] can score 30 in his sleep."
After Thursday, the Raptors can be sure of one thing: The champions might have been slumbering before. But they are most definitely awake now.
Star power remains the most effective way to win an NBA title. The Golden State Warriors, at full strength, have noticeably more superstar heft than the Toronto Raptors.
Without Kevin Durant, though? Not so much. They're supposed to have the edge anyway. Whether they actually do is very much to be determined.
Pascal Siakam is why. He led the way for the Raptors during their 118-109 victory over the Warriors on Thursday night, tallying 32 points, eight rebounds, five assists and two blocks on impressive 14-of-17 shooting from the floor.
Just to put his performance in perspective, here's every other player to match those benchmarks in an NBA Finals game since 1974:
That's a pretty OK list to join. And this company Siakam now keeps reinforces a larger point: Kawhi Leonard isn't the Raptors' singular source of star power. They have Siakam, and they have Kyle Lowry, and they have Marc Gasol.
They are more than the player who carried them here.
This isn't just about Thursday night. Overreacting to a 1-0 series lead is dangerous. Things can, and will, change quickly.
Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson received minimal help from their supporting cast. The rest of the team combined to shoot 5-of-16 from beyond the arc. They will be better.
The Warriors lived with Gasol, Siakam and Danny Green firing wide-open threes in the first half. They will adjust.
Nine days is a long time to rest. They will find a greater rhythm.
Mike Zavagno @MZavagno11
Right now, the Warriors’ offense just lacks variety. Toronto is too good defensively to just give them obvious reads like this https://t.co/n7lySSrqQh
Kevin Durant's partially torn calf muscle, meanwhile, looms over this entire series. He traveled with the team but isn't expected to suit up for Game 2. His absence humanizes the Warriors, even if only slightly on some nights. His return, if it comes, stands to upset-proof them once more.
And yet, to completely ignore the Raptors' Game 1 performance is an equal miscalculation. They had a chance entering the NBA Finals—happy-to-be-here optimism rooted in Durant's absence, but a form of hope all the same.
That conditional optimism is now something more. The Raptors' case has fewer strings attached, not just because of Game 1, but because everyone around Leonard already started peaking before it.
Siakam's iconic stat line is an extreme, but it's not a complete deviation. He has jockeyed with Lowry all season for the rights to Toronto's fictive "Second-Best Player" award, and the Raptors are no stranger to him outperforming everyone else on the floor.
He is the favorite to win Most Improved Player honors. He earned almost as many second-team All-Defense votes (24) as Leonard (29). Leonard, Danilo Gallinari and Karl-Anthony Towns were the only other players this season to clear 19 points, seven rebounds, three assists and one made three-pointer per 36 minutes with a true shooting percentage north of 60.
Skeptics received license to doubt Siakam's rise in the Eastern Conference Finals. He shot just 40 percent from the floor overall and 25 percent on threes, and Toronto's half-court offense felt it.
That was one series, and it came after Siakam suffered a calf injury during the Raptors' second-round matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Six games is not a large enough sample to write off an entire season—or even his first two series. And his defense never wavered. Playoff opponents were scoring just 0.35 points per possession against him in isolation entering Thursday night.
This is not meant to imply "Best Player on the Floor" is Siakam's default setting. In a series against the Warriors, against Curry, it can't be. But don't let Draymond Green's sentiments fool you. Siakam is not a player he can just stop:
Howard Beck @HowardBeck
“I gotta take him out of this series, and that’s on me,” Draymond Green says of Siakam.
Siakam cooked him in the post and on spin-cycle drives. It was a disarming experience for anyone who considered him the beneficiary of Leonard and Lowry. Everyone else had zero reasons to be surprised:
Hardwood Paroxysm @HPbasketball
“Pascal Siakam’s spin move” was literally a talking point for the first three months of the season, but sure, let’s introduce Pascal to NBA Twitter.
Wait, Toronto has a team? Names after Jurassic Park? When did they get rid of Dwane Casey? Where’s DeMar? Why does JV look fat
His tidy three-point shooting (2-of-3) is not an anomaly, either. He came into the NBA Finals hitting 27.7 percent of his wide-open treys for the playoffs, but he buried 38.5 percent of those same looks during the regular season.
So no, Game 1 isn't about accepting Siakam's stardom. That was, by and large, already known. This is about accepting the Raptors' supporting star power and their general depth.
Lowry's 2-of-9 showing in Game 1 won't earn him any Finals MVP buzz, but his impact isn't predicated on scoring. He worked his butt off on defense, stepping in for a charge against DeMarcus Cousins and soaking up meaningful time on Curry. He hit the glass hard (six rebounds) and kept Golden State on tilt in transition (nine assists).
For him, Game 1 was just another day at the office.
Gasol, too. He has come alive since his passive play in the semifinals. He still hesitates on uncontested threes, but not as often. And his hands are all over the place on defense. He is a whiz at getting position near the rim and fared well coming out to trap Curry beyond the arc. The Warriors have almost zero chance of playing him off the court without Durant in the lineup.
Fred VanVleet hasn't lost his Eastern Conference Finals mojo. He hit just one of his four three-point attempts in Game 1, but he kept probing inside the arc (4-of-4) and continues to defend like he's a proper-sized wing instead of a 6'0" guard.
Danny Green busting out of his shooting rut (3-of-7 from deep) with a championship on the line isn't anything out of the ordinary—especially when the Warriors began Game 1 giving him so much space:
Steve Jones Jr. @stevejones20
Danny Green made 6 3PTR's the entire Milwaukee series. Shot 15%. He has 3 tonight. Most Danny Green thing ever.
Again: The Raptors will have tougher nights, particularly if Leonard keeps moving on offense like he has weights in his shoes.
He fought his way to 12 free-throw attempts, went 3-of-6 from downtown and responded to Golden State's collapses and load-ups with (jerky-looking) look-outs. A line of 23 points, eight rebounds and five assists is pretty darn good, even when it comes on 2-of-8 shooting inside the arc. But Leonard's attacks don't have their usual pep. His injured leg remains a thing.
Still, it makes sense that the Raptors would be peaking now. This is Year 1 of the post-DeMar DeRozan era, and they effectively overturned their roster twice: once with the Leonard trade, and then again with their February acquisition of Gasol.
Bake in injuries—Lowry, VanVleet and Norman Powell all missed at least 17 games—and Leonard's maintenance program, and the Raptors always profiled as an already huge sleeping giant.
They're not even technically whole again (OG Anunoby is out), and they've consistently reached another gear. That they limited Golden State's half-court offense to under 0.84 points per possession isn't so much shocking as par for their postseason course.
Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
Use this to reclassify the Raptors as favorites at your own risk. Durant needs to be ruled out for the series—or Andre Iguodala's right leg injury has to be something sinister—to reverse course before Game 2.
The Warriors will be more inventive on offense—more transition attacks, fewer dribble hand-offs, etc. They will get back in time to keep Toronto's fast breaks in check.
They will be better.
The thing is, the Raptors won't necessarily get worse.
Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@danfavale) and listen to hisHardwood Knockspodcast, co-hosted by B/R's Andrew Bailey.
TORONTO — Quinn Cook, the Warriors’ backup point guard out of Duke, can’t confirm where his two buddies, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, will land this summer, but he can confirm the two are tight.
Cook, who followed Irving at Duke and is a childhood friend of Durant’s from Seat Pleasant, Md., has socialized with them as a trio. Cook, who lived with Irving when they were together in Cleveland and now lives with Durant in the Oakland area, said those two guys just hit it off.
Cook, on the eve of Thursday’s NBA Finals, said he had not introduced the pair.
“They played Team USA together (in the 2016 Olympics), they both were hanging at All-Star weekends together,’’ Cook told The Post. “That’s how they created a friendship. I didn’t introduce them. They got close and I was already close with both of them.’’
Speculation is rampant Durant and Irving will attempt to team up with the Knicks. However, recent whispers have West Orange, NJ, native Irving eyeing the Nets and Lakers with equal zest.
“I haven’t talked to Kyrie about free agency,’’ Cook said. “When I talked to him late in the season, the only thing on his mind was trying to help Boston win and we’ve been talking about life and family since. I have no idea. I’m hoping for the best for him.”
Cook got to know Irving well while he was a freshman at Duke and Irving was around a lot.
“He became a close friend,’’ Cook said. “When he got drafted, it was my freshman year and it was the lockout year. So he was at Duke taking classes. I lived with him my rookie year in Cleveland and we became extremely close.’’
Cook, who played four years at Duke from 2011 to 2014, maintains his close ties with the program and has a good feel of Knicks draft candidate RJ Barrett, the 6-foot-7 swingman.
Cook’s “Godbrother’’ is Duke assistant Nolan Smith, and during the All-Star break, he attended a Duke-NC State game.
“I know RJ,’’ Cook said. “Very confident player. He has unique skills. He’s a winner. He comes from a basketball home, seen his father play professionally. He has Steve Nash as godfather and playing for Coach K and the Canadian national team, he’s a winner. He plays hard.
“In his mentality, he wants to do what it takes to win. If he feels he has to take 30 shots or get a triple double to win, he can do it. I think at this level, he’ll have more space and his game will fit better here. I have a good relationship with all the Duke guys.’’
As for Durant’s return to the Finals, Cook can’t predict. Coach Steve Kerr said at Thursday’s morning shootaround he’d be “a long shot’’ to be cleared for a practice before Game 2.
“He’s taken it head-on,’’ Cook said. “He’s rehabbing twice a day, putting in extra work. He’s the first guy in the facility. When I come back at night to shoot, he’s in there. When I’m watching TV, he has to leave the house to go to rehab.
“He’s trying hard to get back. He’s always encouraging us, so he’s important to have a guy like that with his presence. All he wants to do is win a third championship. He’s trying his hardest to get out there.”
MLB 'Continuing Efforts' to Protect Fans ...After Girl Struck By Foul Ball
5/30/2019 8:23 AM PDT
EXCLUSIVE
Major League Baseball says the injury to the little girl struck by a foul ball at the Houston Astros game is "extremely upsetting" ... and insists the league is focused on finding more ways to protect the fans.
The little girl was in the stands at Minute Maid Park in Houston when Cubs star Albert Almora Jr. ripped a line drive foul ball down the 3rd baseline that struck the child directly.
The girl was rushed to a nearby hospital where she was treated for injuries -- but she's reportedly doing okay.
Check this out! It was a SCARY & JARRING moment @MinuteMaidParks last night during #Cubs-#Astros game, when a 4 YO girl was hit by a foul ball! It happened when Cub's player, Albert Almora Jr. hit a foul line drive into the stands. Fortunately, she's OK. #khou11#htownrushpic.twitter.com/xvrxwmV5c5
Almora Jr. was visibly shaken after the incident and appeared to be crying. He was consoled by his teammates and later vowed to get in touch with the girl's family to offer his prayers and any other assistance he could provide.
Now, the MLB is also weighing in ... telling TMZ Sports, "The events at last night’s game were extremely upsetting. We send our best wishes to the child and family involved."
A spokesperson added, "Clubs have significantly expanded netting and their inventory of protected seats in recent years. With last night’s event in mind, we will continue our efforts on this important issue."
Before the start of the 2018 season, every MLB club agreed to put up netting in dangerous areas in their ballparks ... but clearly, more work needs to be done.
In a make-or-miss league, these two teams are still standing because their stars make a tonof big shots. Let's highlight the six shot types that will swing the NBA Finals -- the most important looks for each each team's most important players.
Since Kevin Durant went down against the Houston Rockets, we've witnessed the resurrection of the full Steph Curry experience, which is electrifying to watch and terrifying to try to stop. Just ask the Portland Trail Blazers. They watched Curry break the NBA record for points scored in a sweep by averaging 36.5 per game.
Portland had no answer for Curry out on that left wing or in the pick-and-roll. Curry orchestrated more than 31 picks per game against Portland, yielding a ridiculous 1.23 points per chance, per Second Spectrum tracking. Toronto has to do better than that, and it starts on the perimeter. If Curry is getting his 3s, the Warriors are very difficult to beat. If he's not, Toronto could shock the world. Golden State is 37-8 in playoff games when Steph hits five or more 3-pointers, but just 38-23 when he makes fewer than that.
Who will spend the most time defending Curry? Over the past three seasons, no Raptor has checked him more than Kyle Lowry. Curry is averaging 33 points per 100 possessions when that happens and the Warriors are generating 124 points per 100 as a team, according to Second Spectrum tracking. That's not good enough. But until KD comes back, the Raptors have one less superstar to worry about, and they can allot more defensive resources to the Splash Brothers.
In Durant's absence, Toronto may choose to put Lowry on Andre Iguodala and devote a bigger, longer defender like Danny Green to Curry. Green has a ton of experience against these Warriors and should be able to suppress and contest some shots that Lowry can't.
The Raptors have a lot of good options for a tough situation, especially if Durant is sidelined. Nick Nurse made the biggest adjustment in Canadian basketball history when he pivoted Kawhi Leonard to Giannis Antetokounmpo in Game 3, stifling the world's best interior force for the rest of the series. Nurse and the Raps now must find ways to shut down the league's best perimeter scorer.
Could we see Leonard take a shot at defending Curry in crunch time?
As if those Curry 3s weren't scary enough, the Raptors also have to worry about Klay Thompson.
The Splash Brothers fit together like a glove, and opponents must confront the terrifying symmetry of their long-range shooting. Just as Curry led the NBA in scoring from the left-wing 3 area, Thompson led the NBA in scoring from the right-wing 3 area. It's not fair that one team has both of these fellas! Just ask the Blazers, who watched as the Steph and Klay averaged more than 27 points per game on 3s alone in the Western Conference finals.
Stopping Thompson means preventing clean catch-and-shoot looks. Again, easier said than done, but if Toronto can find ways to clog passing lanes and stay close to Klay off the ball, they'll have a chance of hindering his production from downtown.
Yet another side effect of the Durant injury is how Klay gets his looks. Nobody assisted on more Thompson 3s this season than Durant, whose passes led to 67 of Klay's made triples, according to Second Spectrum data. With Durant out, Draymond Green has been the primary assister on 3s for both backcourt stars, so any efforts designed to suppress splashes need to account for Draymond's dishes. If the Raptors fail to contain them, their chances are bleak -- the Dubs have a 12-3 playoff record when Curry and Thompson score at least 25 points each.
Between the regular season and the playoffs, the Splash Brothers have combined to sink more than 5,000 3s. While many teams have designed defensive game plans to slow down these daggers, few have ever succeeded.
What about KD?
Inside Kevin Durant's most important shot:
Durant's keys to the Finals
The Splash Brothers are the most dangerous 3-point shooting duo the league has ever seen, and they are scary enough by themselves. But another thing that makes this dynasty so nasty is they also have the world's best 2-point scorer in Kevin Durant.
Recall, Durant was the leading scorer in these playoffs before getting hurt. If Durant plays, the Raptors have three guys to throw at him. While Durant is dangerous coming off those midrange picks, Toronto can at least try to switch between these dudes:
Toronto and Golden State played twice early in the season. One was a Raptors blowout win without Leonard, the other an OT victory for Toronto. There's only so much we can read into these two games -- Marc Gasol was still in Memphis, for instance -- but Durant was unstoppable.
He scored 81 points on 53 shots. Those points came from all over the floor. The Raptors forced him into tough looks, and it just didn't matter. The average player would have been expected to shoot a 46.1 effective field goal percentage (eFG) given the shot quality, but KD had a 64.2 eFG, per Second Spectrum tracking. So even if the Raptors open this series with some answers for the best shooting duo in NBA history, KD will present his own kind of problem whenever he's back.
Curry (No. 1), Durant (No. 2) and Thompson (No. 5) made up three of the top five players in quantified shooter impact this season, according to Second Spectrum tracking. This means that of the 52 NBA players who attempted at least 1,000 shots, Golden State's star trio was among the very best at producing a significantly greater eFG than expected given the shot quality.
The Raptors can't let these guys get to their favorite spots.
Kawhi right in the midrange
Inside Kawhi Leonard's most important shot:
Leonard's keys to the Finals
Leonard is by far the Raptors' most important player on both sides of the ball. On defense, he saved their season by stifling Antetokounmpo in the last four games of the Eastern Conference finals. On offense, he is averaging 31.2 points per game in the postseason. No other Raptor is even averaging 20. To call him their MVP would be a massive understatement.
Leonard's shot chart is similar to Durant's -- he can and will score from everywhere. How will the Warriors try to contain him until KD returns?
In the playoffs, Leonard's 55.9 overall eFG falls to 46.0 percent on isos -- and that number gets even worse when he's forced into a jumper (39.2 percent), per Second Spectrum. Iguodala, Thompson and Draymond Green need to do their best to keep Leonard out of the paint when they're left alone against him.
The same goes when Kawhi is the ball-handler in pick-and-roll -- a play that lead to 1.09 points per chance for Toronto (trailing only Steph Curry among players with at least 200 postseason picks). Leonard can hit that midrange pull-up, but if it's contested it might be the least bad of the evils facing Golden State's defense.
Lowry's egalitarian shot creation
Inside Kyle Lowry's most important shot:
Lowry's keys to the Finals
If the Raptors have any chance against the Warriors, players other than Leonard need to be great. Even if Durant doesn't play, Golden State still has two incredible scorers that we know can get it done in the playoffs. Who will be Toronto's second fiddle?
Lowry is a good candidate. After all, he's a five-time All-Star. However, Lowry is not a big-time scorer, and he's nursing a thumb injury. Lowry is averaging 14.7 points per game in the playoffs while shooting worse than 45 percent from the field. His greatest impact happens elsewhere -- all those assist opportunities, a great 30.1 assist rate, Toronto's second-best net rating.
As a shooter, Lowry is most active at the top of the arc. During the regular season, over a third of his shots come from that area. But out of 44 players who tried at least 200 3s from up top, Lowry ranked 41st in efficiency. So while he loves that look, it's an unrequited love affair.
Lowry's favorite target as a passer this postseason has been Siakam, a man with a simple shot chart. Blending corner 3s and rim attacks is a strange mix, but it's a combo that has propelled Siakam to new heights. He's the Raptors' No. 2 scorer and a matchup problem if he can find that corner range.
He'll also be critical to Toronto's pick-and-roll defense, which has been the best of any team in the playoffs.
The Raptors are giving up a postseason-best 0.74 points per chance on 1,038 total picks. Leonard, Siakam and Danny Green are the primary defenders on ball-handlers, and all three of those guys are terrific ball-screen stoppers. If Siakam nails his corner 3s and slows down Golden State's screens on the other end, Toronto can hang.
Leonard is the postseason MVP, but Toronto needs to generate shotmaking elsewhere to have a chance at an upset. Siakam and Danny Green must hit corner 3s, Lowry can't disappear and role players such as Serge Ibaka and Fred VanVleet must provide meaningful contributions.
There's no room for error against these Warriors, but there wasn't much against the Bucks either.
Protective netting at ballparks is once again under scrutiny after a young girl was hit by a foul ball at a Wednesday night game between the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros. The 4-year-old took a line drive during the fourth inning, causing the entire stadium to fall silent.
Moments after Chicago Cubs batter Albert Almora Jr. ripped a line drive into the stands, he knew exactly what happened.
"As soon as I hit it, the first person I locked eyes on was her," Almora said in a post-game interview.
A shaken Almora fell to his knees and began crying when he realized what had happened. His teammate and manager came over to console him.
"Just praying. I'm speechless. I'm at loss of words. Being a father, two boys," Almora said.
In a photo captured after the incident, you can see the young girl in tears, but alert, being held by a man believed to be her father. She was immediately taken to the hospital. Fans were visibly distraught. One woman covered her mouth in shock. After several minutes, Almora went back up to the plate.
"I had to try to keep my composure during that at bat, but when that half inning was over, I just couldn't hold it anymore," Almora said.
Almora went over to the stands to check on the girl, and broke down again, crying in the arms of a security guard. He said when the child feels well enough, he wants to reach out to her.
"God willing, I'll be able to have a relationship with this little girl for the rest of my life. But just prayers right now. That's all I really could control," Almora said.
The extent of the young girl's injuries is unclear at the moment but she is expected to be okay.
While the exit velocity of the swing was not made public, Statcast reported that it traveled 160 feet in 1.2 seconds – meaning it was going at least 90 mph.
There’s a reason we don’t play video games on Rookie mode: Winning a rigged game can get boring. This is a problem for the Golden State Warriors, winners of three of the past four NBA championships. Perhaps the greatest assemblage of talent in NBA history, the Warriors need ways to spice up victory to keep it entertaining, and sometimes that involves heightening the difficulty of their task. Draymond Green has taken this to heart, adding hurdles to the track with fun diversions like calling his teammate who won two Finals MVP trophies a “bitch” or waiting until three-quarters of the season was already over to get in playing shape.
Perhaps this explains why head coach Steve Kerr, almost 100 games into the season with a preposterously talented roster that makes lineup decisions simple, has begun tinkering with the starting lineup. In 16 playoff games, the Warriors have started 11 different players, including six lineup combinations that never started a game together during the regular season.
The shake-up has occurred in part by necessity: Injuries to Kevin Durant (five games missed), DeMarcus Cousins (14), and Andre Iguodala (one) have forced Golden State to dip into its reserves. With Durant and Cousins out, Kevon Looney ranks fourth in regular-season minutes per game among healthy Warriors. Kevon Looney! For the past three years, he’d been the Warriors’ Yung Jud Buechler. Now he’s good.
But Kerr hasn’t filled his starting lineup just by slotting in his next-best players. No, this postseason, he’s started the players who ranked ninth, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, and 16th this season in total minutes for the Warriors. Part of the explanation for starting randos seems to be that Kerr wants to keep his units consistent. Looney, for example, hasn’t started a game yet because Kerr likes the energy he brings off the bench. In Game 6 of the first-round series against the Clippers, Kerr chose to start Shaun Livingston, who didn’t start a game all year, to ensure Iguodala would come in fresh to guard two-time Sixth Man of the Year Lou Williams.
I like to think Kerr is also fidgeting around to make things more interesting. He’s playing a game, trying to seek out the least relevant player he can start and still win a critical playoff game. The injuries necessitate digging into the bench; they don’t necessitate starting Jordan Bell and Alfonzo McKinnie alongside each other in a closeout game in the Western Conference finals. (He did this. They won.) Let’s look at some players the Warriors have started this postseason, and what it means about how seriously Golden State is taking games:
6.3 Fucks Given: Alfonzo McKinnie
McKinnie has actually been a surprisingly good role player for the Warriors this season, appearing in 72 games while proving to be a capable defender and aggressive rebounder. So from a basketball perspective, it isn’t too ridiculous that he started Game 4 against the Trail Blazers—or that it paid off, as McKinnie had 12 points and snagged two critical offensive rebounds in overtime.
But we should note McKinnie’s road to becoming a part of the Warriors rotation. After he graduated from Wisconsin–Green Bay in 2015, no NBA teams were interested in McKinnie, and so he accepted an offer to play for a semi-pro team in Luxembourg’s second division. To clarify: not the best league in Luxembourg, a country of 600,000 that has produced only one NBA player and whose national basketball team is 1-53 in qualification games for EuroBasket since 2005. And it wasn’t even a good team in the second league in Luxembourg—the East Side Pirates (which sounds like a generic team from a video game that didn’t secure NBPA rights) finished 2-26, good for last place. You can watch video of him dominating in gyms with handball lines on the court and, for some reason, green floors.
McKinnie’s rise to the NBA is truly incredible. He went from Luxembourg to the second division in Mexico, to the G League, to a two-way contract with the Raptors last season. (This isn’t just any NBA Finals, it’s an Alfonzo McKinnie–Patrick McCaw Revenge Series.) It’s perhaps the best story of the Warriors’ season. And while I get the basketball explanation, I like to believe the Warriors are playing McKinnie just to prove they can be the best team in the world while playing a guy from the worst team in the second division in Luxembourg.
2.8 F’s Given: Andrew Bogut
It feels weird to include Bogut here—while McKinnie was playing in the Luxembourgian minor leagues, Bogut was starting for the Warriors in a different NBA Finals. He’s a former no. 1 overall pick who was once named to the All-NBA third team. He’s formerly famous!
But after the Warriors traded Bogut to open up cap space in 2016, his career fizzled. He averaged 3.0 points per game for the Mavericks, who traded him to the Sixers, who cut him; he then signed with the Cavs (primarily to provide Warriors intel) but broke his leg in his first minute on the court with Cleveland. He played sparingly with the tanking Lakers last season, and then signed with the Sydney Kings of Australia’s NBL.
The NBL isn’t the second division in Luxembourg—Torrey Craig, who has turned into a legitimate rotation player for the Nuggets, had played most of his pro career in the NBL before making the jump to the NBA in 2017; five-star recruit R.J. Hampton just announced that he will skip college to play in the NBL next season. But if it was possible for NBA teams to improve their rosters midseason by signing players from the Australian leagues, I’m sure we’d see it happen sometimes. As is, there is no precedent for a player who was in the NBL in March appearing in playoff games in April, but that’s what the Warriors did with Bogut.
Kerr has put Bogut in the starting lineup at least once in every playoff series thus far, and it’s not really clear why. After some decent contributions against the Clippers, Bogut scored a total of two points in his three starts against the Rockets and Trail Blazers, playing a total of 23 minutes before Kerr bumped him for players who were actually in the NBA all season. I suspect Bogut won’t see any more starts, especially with the pending return of DeMarcus Cousins from injury. If we do see Bogut, it will be an attempt by Golden State to prove it can win the championship when one of its starters literally doesn’t belong in the NBA anymore.
0.3 F’s Given: Damian Jones
For all the random players given opportunities in the playoffs, nothing approaches Golden State’s decision to start Jones in Game 3 against Portland. To be fair, Jones was a regular starter for the Warriors in October and November, opening 22 of the team’s first 24 games. The 2016 first-round draft pick didn’t play a huge role, but he was a gifted finisher, shooting 71.6 percent from the field. If he’d kept it up all season, that would’ve led the league.
But Jones tore his pectoral muscle in December, requiring surgery that kept him out until May. Jones was medically cleared ahead of the Western Conference finals, and Kerr patiently reinserted him into low-leverage situations. He got a minute and 42 seconds of playing time in garbage time Game 1, scoring three points. He got a minute and 30 seconds in the third quarter of Game 2, grabbing a rebound before returning to the bench.
And then, BAM! With almost three minutes under his belt, Jones was in the starting lineup for Game 3. Some players demand immediate reinsertion into the lineup when they come back from injury; Damian Jones probably isn’t one of them. Jones immediately picked up three personal fouls (including one on a 3-pointer) in just three minutes, heading to the bench with Golden State down 9-5. He didn’t play the rest of the game or in the series-ending Game 4.
Kerr made the decision to spot his opponents a small lead in one of the most important games of the year by starting a guy who hadn’t played long enough to work up a sweat since December. The Warriors still won by 11. Hopefully, the NBA Finals deliver, as the Raptors seem to be a great team and the Warriors aren’t at full strength. If not, Kerr will need to break up the boredom of a fourth NBA championship by starting Jones and randos like him.
Major League Baseball says the injury to the little girl struck by a foul ball at the Houston Astros game is "extremely upsetting" ... and insists the league is focused on finding more ways to protect the fans. 
