We The Champs: The Toronto Raptors' Historic Run to the 2019 NBA Title - Softcover

Wong, Alex; Woodley, Sean; Armstrong, Jack

Softcover

ISBN 10: 162937668X ISBN 13: 9781629376684

Publisher: Triumph Books, 2019

Synopsis

This commemorative book on the 2018 NBA champions provides a visual look at the winning team's road to championship glory. Through unique words and images, this celebratory book takes readers from the opening games in November through the 2018-19 NBA season and exciting playoffs. Including full color photographs and profiles of star players and the head coach, this keepsake book is an essential part of any fan's collection.

About this title

About the Author

Alex Wong is a freelance writer based in Toronto. He has followed the Toronto Raptors since their inception, and has covered and written about the NBA for various publications including The New Yorker, GQ, SLAM, New York Times, Yahoo Sports, The Atlantic and other places.

Sean Woodley is a freelance writer and broadcaster based in Hamilton, Ontario. He has been covering the Raptors for SB Nation's Raptors HQ since 2015, is the host of the daily "Locked On Raptors" podcast, and is a regularly heard voice on TSN 1150 Radio in Hamilton. Above his office desk sits a framed photo of his favourite Toronto Raptor, Terrence Ross.

Jack Armstrong is an NBA analyst and Toronto Raptors broadcaster for TSN. He has been the voice of the Raptors for two decades.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

We The Champs

The Toronto Raptors' Historic Run TO the 2019 NBA TITLE

By Alex Wong, Sean Woodley

Triumph Books LLC

Copyright © 2019 Triumph Books LLC
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-62937-668-4

Contents

Foreword By Jack Armstrong, 
Introduction, 
NBA Finals vs. Golden State, Game 1, 
NBA Finals vs. Golden State, Game 2, 
NBA Finals vs. Golden State, Game 3, 
NBA Finals vs. Golden State, Game 4, 
NBA Finals vs. Golden State, Game 5, 
NBA Finals vs. Golden State, Game 6, 
Board Man Gets Titles, 
Primed and Ready, 
Nick Nurse, 
Kawhi Leonard, 
Kyle Lowry, 
Overlooked No More, 
Masai Ujiri, 
Back Where They Belong, 
Danny Green, 
Eastern Conference Quarterfinals vs. Orlando, Game 1, 
Eastern Conference Quarterfinals vs. Orlando, Game 2, 
Eastern Conference Quarterfinals vs. Orlando, Game 3, 
Eastern Conference Quarterfinals vs. Orlando, Game 4, 
Eastern Conference Quarterfinals vs. Orlando, Game 5, 
Eastern Conference Semifinals vs. Philadelphia, Game 1, 
Eastern Conference Semifinals vs. Philadelphia, Game 2, 
Eastern Conference Semifinals vs. Philadelphia, Game 3, 
Eastern Conference Semifinals vs. Philadelphia, Game 4, 
Eastern Conference Semifinals vs. Philadelphia, Game 5, 
Eastern Conference Semifinals vs. Philadelphia, Game 6, 
Eastern Conference Semifinals vs. Philadelphia, Game 7, 
Eastern Conference Finals vs. Milwaukee, Game 1, 
Eastern Conference Finals vs. Milwaukee, Game 2, 
Eastern Conference Finals vs. Milwaukee, Game 3, 
Eastern Conference Finals vs. Milwaukee, Game 4, 
Eastern Conference Finals vs. Milwaukee, Game 5, 
Eastern Conference Finals vs. Milwaukee, Game 6, 

CHAPTER 1

NBA Finals vs. Golden State, Game 1

Raptors 118, Warriors 109 May 30, 2019 • Toronto, Ontario

Northern Touch

Raptors Give Warriors Rude Welcoming, Win First Ever Finals Game

By Sean Woodley

Game 1 of the NBA Finals ... in Toronto. What a scene.

Twenty-four years of tension, built up by departed stars and inferiority complexes and a half decade-straight of crushing conclusions to otherwise great seasons, all released in one beautiful, uproarious day. Fans lined up more than 12 hours ahead of the first Finals game in Raptors history just for the chance to watch the game in the famed outdoor haven for priced-out fans, Jurassic Park. Many of those old estranged stars, including Chris Bosh, Tracy McGrady, and Damon Stoudamire were in an attendance, and honoured by the team to boot. Vindication was afoot, everywhere. It was worth every second of the 24 year wait.

Though amidst the excitement and the newness was a touch of realism. Underneath the euphoric haze that hung above Toronto between Game 6 against Milwaukee and the Finals opener, the scent of gravy could be detected. Toronto simply surviving the Eastern Conference blood wars and making the Finals felt like enough to satiate most Raptors fans. Beating the Warriors would have been amazing, sure. It also would have been crazy to outright expect it.

Even without the injured Kevin Durant, sidelined with a calf injury since late in the second round, the Warriors were The Champs. Portland entered the Western Conference Finals feeling themselves after an emotional Game 7 win over Denver. Four games later, they'd been snuffed out by the Warriors machine. Golden State had spent the last five years tossing the good vibes of opponents in the trash.

On Toronto's first offensive possession, Kyle Lowry airmailed a pass to Pascal Siakam in the right corner. Maybe Warriors-induced jitters really were a thing?

As it turned out, Lowry's gaffe would prove to be one of the only bouts of frayed nerves Toronto dealt with all night. With the help of a locked-in supporting cast, the dependability of which had fluctuated over the course of the season, Toronto weathered an 11-point, three-triple first quarter from Steph Curry to escape with a 25-21 lead.

The opening 12 minutes laid bare the all-out approach the Warriors were going to employ to bother Leonard, the MVP of the post-season to date. Toronto's superstar saw multiple bodies at the top of every pick-and-roll he ran. He ran a lot of pick-and-rolls anyway.

"They did a good job in both halves, blitzing my picks and rolls," Leonard detailed after his clean five-assist, two-turnover turn as a playmaker. "Bringing two to the ball, and if I get by that third guy's coming. But my teammates played well tonight. It's a team game, if they (the Warriors) are gonna play like that then guys are gonna play well, get wide open shots."

"Don't try to be a hero out there. Just play basketball. And that's what I do."

Kawhi having his space cramped all night meant the Warriors were always conceding something, somewhere. That something was a line of wide open first-quarter threes to Toronto's supporting cast. Beating the Warriors is all about massaging the math. Threes are worth more than twos, and no one in the history bombs triples the way Klay Thompson and Steph Curry have since the Warriors' ascent. Even though the Raptors fired up 14 triples in the first quarter, connecting on five, you could have still quibbled with a couple long balls the likes of Marc Gasol and Kyle Lowry opted to pass up.

The point though, is that those threes were available, and it was all thanks to Leonard's magnetism. Earlier in the postseason, selling out the stop Leonard might have been a usable strategy against Philadelphia or for the first couple games against the Bucks, when if the supporting cast wasn't bricking shots it was straight up passing out of them. The equation changes when Pascal Siakam, Marc Gasol, and Danny Green can swish 7-of-16 triples combined as they did in Game 1.

"It's not Kawhi Leonard. It's the Raptors." said Klay Thompson after the game in assessment of Golden State's Kawhi-focused D. Imagine hearing that back in round two.

More crucial than anyone else to Toronto's from-all-angles attack in Game 1 was Pascal Siakam. Toronto's ascendant star saw his efficiency gradually slashed over the course of the postseason, as the defenders in his grill got progressively more daunting. It speaks to how exponentially his development curve exploded in such a short time that the Sixers and Bucks assigned their best defenders — Embiid and Antetokounmpo — to the cause of slowing down Siakam. After dealing with the league's two closest things to real life Monstars, Siakam seemed positively giddy at the sight of former Defensive Player of the Year Draymond Green and his ho hum 6'7 frame.

Siakam's first quarter oozed comfortability. He attacked mismatches when they presented themselves, but was as at home driving and spinning around Green as he was against the overmatched Curry. He left the opening frame with a tidy five points, two rebounds, and three assists on his ledger. It was in the second half where Siakam really invited himself to the center of the NBA's grandest stage.

Here's a quick rundown of Siakam's exploits on a string of consecutive possessions to begin the third quarter:

• A silky spin move and a bucket around Green

• A mid-range jumper than rattled in

• A trip to the free-throw line and a pair of makes

• His fourth assist of the night on an acrobatic leap and dump off to a charging Leonard on the break

• A sublime switch out onto Klay Thompson that helped force a Warriors shot clock violation

• A driving, banked-in hook shot out of the left corner

• Another wide-receiver like catch in traffic that he flipped into a finger-roll finish

• Another pull-up 20-footer

All of this happened in the first six minutes of the quarter.

By the time of the final buzzer, Siakam sat on 32 points to pair with eight rebounds, five assists, a steal, and two blocks on a blazing 82 percent from the field — quite literally one of the best Finals performances turned in by anyone, ever. Between the second and fourth quarters, 11-straight Siakam shots found mesh; he even recovered his lone second half miss and put it back to all but seal the win in closing time.

"He's made himself into a guy," said Draymond Green of Siakam's performance, taking blame for allowing the 25-year-old to go off. "He put a lot of work in to get there and I respect that. But ... I gotta take him outta this series and that's on me."

Siakam, as well as Danny Green, Gasol (20 points on 6-of-10 shooting), and Fred VanVleet (15 points on 5-of-8) proved a couple things in the Finals opener. First, that the Raptors could in fact survive relative off nights from Leonard and Kyle Lowry (they shot a combined 7-of-23 in the win), and second, that Toronto's secondary guys were very much not afraid of the brightest lights.

How could they be, really? On the road to Game 1, Toronto had faced just about every adverse situation in the book. All the Raptors had seen and overcome was the seasoning they needed to take on challenge of the two-time champs with eagerness instead of fear. Having Kawhi Leonard's unbreakable calm hanging around the room can't have hurt, either.

"We know that they're human. I mean they're a great basketball team, talented players, high basketball IQ players," Kawhi said after the win. "You just gotta go out there and compete, take the challenge. We know they're gonna make big shots, go on runs. It's about just keeping your composure and keep fighting through, don't put your head down. Players like Steph or Klay make big threes, just keep playing."

Just keep playing. Successfully abide Leonard's advice three more times, and the title would be coming North.

CHAPTER 2

NBA Finals vs. Golden State, Game 2

Warriors 109, Raptors 104 June 2, 2019 • Toronto, Ontario

Counterpunch

Warriors Overtake Raptors with Third Quarter Onslaught, Tie Series

By Sean Woodley

In the aftermath of Game 1 of The Finals, Draymond Green accepted culpability for the Warriors' failings — particularly when it came to wrangling Toronto's galloping transition weapon, Pascal Siakam.

"I think he played an amazing game obviously, but he got out in transition and our transition D was horrible, and I let him get in a rhythm in the first half, first quarter really," said the former Defensive Player of the Year. "So I got to do a better job of taking his rhythm away, and I will, but he had a great game ... He's become a guy. He put a lot of work in to get there and I respect that, but like I said, I got to take him out of the series and that's on me."

No finger-pointing, no befuddlement over the schooling he'd just received at Siakam's hands; just acceptance and acknowledgement of the need to be better, and an ominous tone alluded to the adjustments to come. Siakam shot 5-of-18 in Game 2, by the way.

Draymond's displeasure with his effort in the opener was echoed by his teammates. The Warriors weren't happy to see their flawless record in Finals Game 1s besmirched. Green mentioned Klay Thompson as one Warrior who was especially peeved.

"Klay's not one to just walk around showing emotion, but you kind of get, you can get a feel for when he is [ticked] off. I got that feeling," Green said on the ever of Game 2. "You could just see it when he was walking off the floor (after Game 1). Like, there's a certain bounce that he has."

Anyone who didn't think that bounce foretold a swift Warriors strike-back in Game 2 hadn't been paying attention for the previous five years. How prepared Toronto was to absorb the blow was the only real uncertainty heading into Sunday night at Scotiabank Arena.

Early returns were promising from a Toronto perspective. The Raptors defense stayed swarming. Apart from a revenge-seeking, en fuego Thompson registering 11 first quarter points, the Warriors shot poorly. Steph Curry, reportedly dealing with a bout of dehydration, started out bucketless on three attempts, saved only by four made free throws. Seven of eight Raptors to see the court scored in the first 12 minutes, and Toronto escaped the quarter with a 27-26 lead.

The second quarter passed without a Warriors tsunami, too. Even in the face of foul trouble for Kyle Lowry, Toronto padded its lead. Fred VanVleet added more pages to his folk hero's tale. He joined Kawhi Leonard as the only Raptors in double figures in the half. He'd finish with 17 points in a tenacious 38 minutes of action.

Game 2 lacked the flow you'd traditionally see from the Raptors and Warriors. If foul calls didn't outnumber uninterrupted possessions, it was darn close. Through the charity of the whistle and a missed three by Norman Powell that would have opened up a 14-point Toronto lead, the Warriors crept uncomfortably close — within five points — with the third quarter on tap.

Golden State's propensity for life-sapping third quarter runs had long been canon before the second half of Game 2 in Toronto. They'd overcome doubledigit Portland leads in the back 24 minutes of the final three games of their sweep of Blazers the round prior. Everyone in attendance for Game 2 knew what to expect next. Anticipation didn't make the next six minutes any less awe-inspiring.

Over a stretch spanning five minutes and forty seconds, five forced turnovers, and two Raptors timeouts, the Warriors rattled off 18 unanswered points. Using Curry's floor-bending gravity as an off-ball screener, Golden State unleashed a parade of dunks and layups. Death by a dozen back cuts. DeMarcus Cousins, making his first start since returning from a month and half on the shelf, picked out those cutters with rust-free precision. Golden State's 34 assists on 38 buckets was the highest assist percentage posted by any team in a Finals game since 1960. All 22 of their second half makes had an accompanying dime. Toronto's usually adaptable defense seemed unprepared for the onslaught.

"Yeah, I mean, it was the big point in the game. I thought just staying in the game at the end of the second quarter was also very important," Steve Kerr said of the way the Warriors flipped the game. "I think we were down 12 and the place was going nuts, we couldn't score, and Steph and Klay both got loose and the game loosened up a little bit and we scored. We weren't exactly making stops, but we cut the lead to five and could kind of breathe at halftime.

"I think our guys felt renewed life at that point and came out and just had a great run to take control of the game, and we were able to finish it out from there."

To a man, the Raptors placed blame on their porous offense for putting the defense in an unenviable spot.

"They jumped out on us and it was hard to get back set after that," said VanVleet. "You got to score against this team, I mean 21 points in the third quarter is not going to do it, and our offense has got to be better. And I think that probably adds an extra 10 on their side."

In yet another showcase of Toronto's now fabled resilience, it survived the bludgeoning without falling too far out of touch. Leonard made use of a favorable whistle and racked up free throws in lieu of a functioning Raptors half court attack. Eight points didn't feel insurmountable with 12 minutes left to play. Leonard looked to be entering takeover mode, 28 of his eventual 34 points already in the bag.

A frantic sequence of events to open the fourth left both sides spinning. Quinn Cook and Danny Green traded threes, because the playoffs are weird. Klay Thompson injured his hamstring trying to collect a three-point shooting foul, because the playoffs are cruel. He joined Kevon Looney (shoulder) among Warriors to leave the game unable to return.

With the Raptors desperate for stops, and the Warriors running low on warm bodies, things got especially bizarre in the final six minutes. Nick Nurse pulled a trick out of the high school coaches' bag and deployed a box-and-one zone defense — four guys in a square inside the arc, and a lone, roving Steph Curry pest (Fred VanVleet) scurrying about above the arc. The goal: dare anyone but Curry to launch up low-percentage threes. And it ... worked?

Toronto took its turn holding their opponent to a 5-minute scoreless stretch, and the Raptors cut the lead from 12 to two — though a handful of uncontested misses left Nurse wanting more. Kyle Lowry also fouled out on a silly swipe at DeMarcus Cousins' hands. Not ideal.

"Well, I was feeling r eally good because we stopped their scoring, right, and finally got something figured out there to slow them down," Nurse said of his funky defensive alignment. "And we were getting a bunch of wide-open shots, I think we missed three wide-open threes in a row there to cut it to maybe four, right, and maybe it was five ... a bunch of stops in a row and we didn't get much to show for it at the other end."

With 26 seconds to play and the score 106-104, the scenario was a tricky one to navigate for the Raptors. Rather than foul and draw out the game, the Raptors opted to try to force a steal. They nearly did, before a sure-handed Shaun Livingston picked out an unmanned Andre Iguodala. He rose up, and drained the dagger that sent the series back to Oakland tied at 1-1.

Curry called Toronto's abandonment of Iguodala "disrespectful" in his post-game walk-off interview with ESPN's Doris Burke.

"Well, we weren't disrespecting anybody," retorted Nurse. "We were up guarding hard, and we put two on Steph and he almost threw it right to Kawhi, right? It was pretty good defense, they were scrambling around, running around like crazy."

To be disrespectful of the Warriors is to be impossibly stupid. Toronto certainly was not that. Golden State threw the counterpunch that had been telegraphed since Thursday, but they left the second bout battered. Thompson's hamstring, Iguodala's quad, Looney's shoulder, Kevin Durant's persistent calf injury — all threatened to derail Golden State in segments of Game 2. Just as much as the Raptors, the Warriors would be in survival mode for Game 3. Only 96 minutes played and already, what a series.

CHAPTER 3

NBA Finals vs. Golden State, Game 3

Raptors 123, Warriors 109 June 5, 2019 • Oakland, California

Opportunity Knocks

Raptors Take Advantage of Warriors' Injuries and Take Back Homecourt with Game 3 Win

By Alex Wong

Opportunity.

It is a word used by players around the league often, especially in the postseason. The opportunity to win an NBA championship comes around only so often. For many players, they spend an entire career chasing that goal without ever coming close. For the Toronto Raptors, the door to their first ever title opened ever so slightly before Game 3, when the Golden State Warriors announced Klay Thompson would be out with a hamstring injury. Adding to the injuries keeping Kevin Durant and Kevon Looney on the sidelines, suddenly the Raptors were in the driver seat on the road, with a chance to regain control of the series.

The Warriors are two-time defending champions and even with a depleted roster, were not about to just hand Toronto a victory at Oracle Arena, especially not when Steph Curry was still on the floor, a one-man offense unto himself. Toronto knew coming into the game Curry would be the focal point of their attack, and were still helpless for most of the night. Curry scored 17 points in the first quarter en route to a masterful performance: 47 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists in 43 minutes.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from We The Champs by Alex Wong, Sean Woodley. Copyright © 2019 Triumph Books LLC. Excerpted by permission of Triumph Books LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Triumph Books
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 162937668X
• ISBN 13: 9781629376684
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128