Gritty Performance Sees Warriors Tie Up Finals, Attrition Could Hurt Them in Remainder of Series

by Julian Spivey
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Grit.

That’s the word that best sums up the performance of the Golden State Warriors in game two of the NBA Finals on Sunday night (June 2) in a 109-104 win against the Toronto Raptors to even up the series at 1-1.

The Warriors win in game two effectively steals home-court advantage for the Warriors who now head to Oakland, Calif. looking to take control of the series at home.

It won’t be easy, though, as attrition is building up for Golden State and it appears the biggest factor in the NBA Finals could be health and that’s currently on Toronto’s side, without a doubt.

We knew coming into the Finals that Kevin Durant might not play at all or could possibly be ready to suit up by games three or four – which is starting to seem unlikely, unless the Warriors are just playing their cards close to their chest.

In game one Durant’s inability to play hurt the Warriors more than at any point in the Western Conference Finals against the Portland Trail Blazers and the end of the series before that against the Houston Rockets – that is to say it actually hurt them. The Raptors dominated game one from start-to-finish.

In game two that same Raptors dominance was in effect. It didn’t help that essentially nobody on the Warriors looked right, except for Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. It took Stephen Curry until deep in the first half to score a bucket, and you could tell he just didn’t seem to feel right. ABC/ESPN sideline reporter Doris Burke said he was suffering from some type of illness. Forward and defensive ace Andre Iguodala was still not completely right from an injury suffered late in the WCF. Then late in the first half Warriors center Kevon Looney, who’s played big minutes as their main center throughout the playoffs (due to DeMarcus Cousins’ injury) hit the deck hard and suffered a chest contusion. He wouldn’t return for the remainder of the game.

The only thing that kept the Warriors within striking distance was the play of Thompson and their ability to get to the free throw line. The Raptors took a five-point lead into halftime but were more dominant that the scoreboard told.

Coach Steve Kerr must’ve given the Warriors one helluva pep talk during halftime because they came out looking like a completely different team – or more aptly their usual selves – in the third quarter. This is when the tide of the game truly turned in their favor. The Warriors went on an unprecedented 18-0 run to start the third quarter (a new NBA Finals record to begin a half) before the Raptors finally got on the board just before the halfway mark of the third. The Warriors would outscore the Raptors by 13 points in the quarter.

Things were looking good for Golden State until Klay Thompson landed awkwardly on a three-point attempt early in the fourth and left the game with a hamstring injury. Despite playing almost none of the final quarter of the game he would lead the Warriors with 25 points in the game. Curry got going in the second half and would finish with 23 points.

The Raptors would claw their way back into the game in the fourth quarter and the Warriors looked to be in trouble without their leading scorer Thompson and one of their best bigs and defenders in Looney. With under 30 seconds remaining in the game the Raptors got the Warriors lead down to just two points and played terrific defense against Curry, which almost resulted in him throwing the ball away, but instead the ball landed in the hands of Shaun Livingstone who found a wide open Iguodala behind the arc for the game-clinching three-pointer.

The Warriors had another huge game out of forward and truly their lightning spark Draymond Green who was just one assist away from another triple-double in these playoffs. Cousins who was only able to play a handful of minutes in game one coming off a month-and-a-half long absence due to injury got the start in game two and put up a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Golden State also got a huge effort off the bench by backup point guard Quinn Cook who hit three important three-pointers.

Kawhi Leonard was the spark plug keeping the Raptors running in game two with a game-high 34 points in a losing effort. Fred VanFleet continued to hound Curry on defense and added 17 points off the bench, as well to be the Raptors second highest scorer. Forward Pascal Siakam, who was the star of game one for Toronto, didn’t have near the output in game two with 12 points on just 5-of-18 shooting. Center Marc Gasol also didn’t shine as bright with only six points in game two.

The series switches to Golden State’s homecourt of Oracle Arena on Wednesday, June 5 for game three of the series. The piled up injuries the Warriors find themselves with could be the biggest factor in that important game.

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