The Toronto Raptors are one win away from an NBA Championship.
It’s a surreal sentence to type, and stranger still to say aloud — 11 simple words carrying all the multitudes of a team and a city’s 24-year journey to reach this point.
Whether it’s detailing Kawhi Leonard’s transcendence or musing over what it would mean for Toronto to be the end of the Golden State Warriors’ dynasty, long gone are the days of the Raptors being in the public discourse solely as a punchline.
Rightly, a tremendous amount of digital ink has been spent chronicling this NBA Finals at outlets on both sides of the border. Here is a look at what American media has to say about the Raptors sitting on the precipice of history.
SB Nation — Kawhi Leonard is the perfect leader for the Raptors
Zito Madu of SB Nation detailed Leonard’s leadership and how, for a team once known for proverbially coming up short when it matters most, his demeanour is exactly what they needed.
Sports are often talked about in war terms, and we seem to think that leaders should behave like great generals leading their side to victory in battle. That means scowling, teeth-gritting, chest-pounding, and screaming. That means seeing fiery individuals who often give big motivational speeches to push their team to their best. Draymond Green, for example, is the archetype of this kind of leader: expressive and visceral.
Leonard is on the opposite end of the spectrum. If you paid attention to his facial expressions and reactions throughout a game, you wouldn’t even know he was in the middle of playing in the NBA Finals. Whether his team is winning, losing, going almost six minutes without scoring, or on the cusp of winning the first title in franchise history, he maintains the same unshaken attitude.
…For so long, the Raptors have been known for collapsing under pressure. That identity was so ingrained that regardless of their regular-season success, few truly believed in their ability to succeed in the playoffs. Thanks to Leonard, that distinction no longer applies.
…Leonard’s leadership qualities have illustrated the most surreal aspect of this ridiculous Raptors dream: the Raptors, the team that’s known for falling apart, now has collective championship mettle. Leonard might not fit into the traditional idea of a leader, but he is the ultimate leader for a Raptors team now on the cusp of basketball immortality.
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Sports Illustrated — Serge Ibaka Seizes His Finals Moment in Raptors’ Game 4 Win
SI’s Rob Mahoney looked into Ibaka’s resurgence and the difference it’s made for the Raptors on the biggest stage the NBA has to offer.
…Golden State can win with Leonard scoring big, proven by the fact that they already have. The trouble comes when Leonard gets his, Kyle Lowry plays tremendously, and some other Raptor cuts in to alter the game. Or, to put in terms more familiar to the Warriors after their 105-92 Game 4 loss: It isn’t the 36 from Leonard that kills you, but the 20 points in 22 minutes from Serge Ibaka.
Credit Nurse with seeing Ibaka for who he really was. Throughout this season, Ibaka spent less time hovering around the three-point line (he attempted his fewest three-pointers in the past four years) and more finding his intermediate game. Simply being allowed to exist in spaces he’s always found more comfortable revitalized his game. It’s curious that he seems more athletic at 29 than he did at 27, but basketball is nothing if not a curious game. A player’s complexion can change with the subtlest shift. New circumstances can disprove what once seemed so clear.
…Toronto doesn’t ask Ibaka to be who he isn’t. There is no delusion of him masquerading as Draymond Green, making difficult reads at full speed. It’s enough for Ibaka to make himself available, and either make a move or give up the ball—so long as he stays engaged. Sometimes, it’s enough to work as an outlet.
The Ringer — The Warriors’ Dynasty May Be Falling Apart Before Our Eyes
For The Ringer, Dan Devine explored, among other things, why these Warriors are not like the teams in recent memory who were able to overcome 3-1 deficits.
…Yes, Golden State came back from 3-1 down to beat Oklahoma City in 2016. But that edition of the Warriors had versions of Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston, and Andrew Bogut that were three years younger; a fully operational Harrison Barnes to play 30 minutes a night at small forward; and spark-plug reserves (Ian Clark, Leandro Barbosa, Marreese Speights) capable of coming into a game cold and drilling a couple of shots to turn the tide. This one has more limited versions of the trio of veterans, trick-or-treat young guys, and an ailing and at times nearly unplayable DeMarcus Cousins.
…Yes, the Cavaliers came back from 3-1 down to beat the Warriors one round after Golden State did it to OKC. But that team had LeBron at the peak of his powers. This time, the unstoppable freight train is on the other side, in cornrows. And the Warriors’ best hope of matching up with him still can’t get on the court.
…While the vision of who the Raptors are snaps into focus, the Warriors seem to be watching the image of who they’ve been fade away. Steph and Klay are killing themselves to get open and rain fire, and the Raptors just keep dousing them. Draymond’s virtuoso ferocity can’t rattle a team this smart, experienced, measured, and confident. Cousins is too banged up to perform like the fifth member of an All-Star lineup. Durant’s not here, and if he does return, he’ll be entering the blast furnace of a must-win game after more than a month on the shelf.
Action Network — Moore: The End of the Roar at Oracle
Matt Moore wrote about how, on the verge of their first NBA Championship in team history, the Raptors have exposed and all but toppled a basketball empire that, for years, seemed unstoppable.
…it was going to be one of those nights when the Splash Brothers splashed and Draymond flexed. It was going to be one of those nights where the Warriors’ empire stood its ground and forced the opponent to stake its claim to the throne somewhere, sometime later.
Instead, the lasting image from what may be the last game at Oracle was a group of fans waving the Canadian flag, chanting “Raps in 5!” and “one more win!” and “We the North!” as Oracle’s Silicon Valley denizens trudged their way toward their vehicles.
By the end of the Roman Empire, it wasn’t really the Roman Empire anymore. Empires don’t end abruptly in a final Phyrric defeat, they end with the slow transition. You wake up one day and that empire simply isn’t an empire anymore. It’s just a nation state.
That’s what the Raptors have exposed in these playoffs. This isn’t that Oracle; there have been comments from Warriors players and media all year about how different it is. And these aren’t those Warriors.
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CBS Sports — There should be no asterisk next to Toronto ending Golden State’s dynasty
Reid Forgrave of CBS Sports detailed the case for why injuries are no reason to put an asterisk next to the Raptors’ accomplishments.
…Boo hoo. You don’t feel sorry for the Warriors, the team with the embarrassment of riches, the team with an All-Star at every spot. And you shouldn’t. They knew when they signed Durant that their depth would be an issue. This was always the risk.
…it sure feels like the way things are going, Jurassic Park will be celebrating sooner instead of later. I don’t need to go too deep into the history of it, but only 11 teams have ever come back to win a seven-game series after being down 3-1. The Warriors, obviously, have the juice to do it. But Durant or not, it still feels highly unlikely.
If the Raptors win this, in five games or in seven, with Kevin Durant on the court or without, you’ll hear these types of sentences on overhyped sports debate television shows, mark my words: That the Raptors weren’t really the best team in the NBA this season. That the Raptors never had to face the best version of the best team of this generation. That they somehow took a shortcut to win it all.
These sentences will be utter B.S.
Here’s why: It’s not just because injuries are part of the game. Obviously, they are. In fact, these injuries are evidence why you ought not put an asterisk next to a Raptors’ title. Must I remind you that the Warriors first title came with Kevin Love missing the entire series due to injury and with Kyrie Irving missing every game except Game 1?
This Warriors run, in fact, sets the groundwork for why a Raptors 2019 title ought to come with no such asterisk.
