Warriors on Life Support as Kawhi, Raptors Steal Page from Dubs’ Own Playbook

Nathaniel S. Butler/Getty Images

OAKLAND, Calif. — The Golden State Warriors have made a habit of ending games early. It’s kind of their thing.

After hanging around or building a small advantage in the first half, the Warriors regularly take a competitive game and accumulate a big lead in the third. Think the 18-0 run out of the third-quarter gate in Game 2 of the 2019 NBA Finals.

In Game 4, the Toronto Raptors used that trope against them, besting Golden State by 16 points during a 12-minute stretch en route to a monumental 105-92 win at Oracle Arena on Friday night. Now they head back home to Toronto with a 3-1 series lead.  

“Well, we had a big problem with the third quarter in Game 2, so we had to make some adjustments there to try to combat the way they come out of the half,” Toronto head coach Nick Nurse said. “They have been historically really good at that.”

“Historically really good at that.” Ain’t that the truth.

The Warriors won third quarters by an average of 2.8 points this season and 5.1 in 2017-18, both tops in the league. In the Kevin Durant era, the Warriors have played 304 third quarters, winning or drawing 212 of them. This 16-point walloping ties their second-worst third-quarter point differential in three seasons.

The Raptors, rigid as ever in their execution on both ends, were able to give the Warriors a taste of their own medicine behind Kawhi Leonard, who picked apart the Warriors for 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting during the period compared to the Warriors’ 21.

“Kawhi Leonard came out and hit two big eff-you shots to start the half,” Raptors guard Fred VanVleet said. “There’s no defense for that. There are no schemes for that. That’s two big-boy shots that he came out of the half with, two back-to-back threes. And that just kind of let you know how we were going to approach the third quarter and the rest of the half. It put us in a good position.”

Leonard’s threes to start the half caused a cascade effect, deflating the Warriors and derailing the momentum for the remainder of the game.

“I thought they just took it to us right from the beginning of the quarter,” Golden State head coach Steve Kerr said. “Kawhi hit two threes immediately, and they turned up their defense, and they just got on a run. And we just sort of lost that defensive tenacity that we had in the first half.”

From then on, the lead swelled. The Warriors tried to cut into it, but the Raptors always had a response.

What was said at halftime to boost the team? “Nothing really,” Leonard said.

Aside from making shots, Toronto’s big adjustment was starting VanVleet in the second half, removing Danny Green, who had shot 0-of-6 up to that point. The move increased the tempo and added a playmaker to kick-start the offense, something the Raptors have found success with over the course of the season.

“I think it just gives us a different look,” Nurse said pregame. “You know the look. We played Kyle [Lowry] and Fred together a lot, and it gives us kind of a double push, two guys that can push it up the floor, two guys that can take it off the bounce, two guys that can run the team. And mostly, it helps Kyle get off the ball and get up the floor, and Fred can get us into stuff.”

After making just two of 17 threes in the first half, the Raptors followed Leonard in the third, shooting 8-of-15 from beyond the arc and bending the Warriors defense to a breaking point.

“I think they made shots,” Draymond Green said. “Our defense was flying around. I think we still got some good contests there in the second half, like started the half, they had two great contests on Kawhi’s threes, and he hit them. Then they found a rhythm, and once a team like that finds a rhythm, it’s hard to take them out of it.”

Sometimes, good offense beats good defense. The Raptors saw an opening and went for the kill.

Green wasn’t too happy to be on that end of it: “Oh, this sucks. It sucks really bad. You just try and do whatever you can to change it. Get a stop, get a bucket, get some momentum. Every time we did, they answered. So yeah, it sucked, a lot. But can’t get it back now.”

The Warriors are on the ropes, but they have been here before. In 2016, they were down 3-1 in the Western Conference Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The wisdom they gained from that series sets them up to fight their way out of the corner.

“It’s not over,” two-time NBA MVP Stephen Curry said. “It’s not a good feeling right now, obviously, but like you said, we have been on both sides of it. And for us, it’s an opportunity for us to just flip this whole series on its head, and you got to do it one game at a time.” 

Curry continued: “It sounds cliche, and for us, that’s literally the only way we’re going to get back in this series, is give everything we got for 48 minutes, everybody that sets foot on that floor in Game 5. In our locker room, we’re talking about believing, everybody out there believes that we can get this done. We got to—we can draw on those experiences that we had back in the day and see what happens.”

In potentially the last game at Oracle Arena, a place that has seen countless wins—and one that has presented true home-court advantage to the Warriors over this stretch (and 40-plus seasons before it)—the building was exhausted of its magic. Raptors fans out-chanted the Golden State faithful and overran the arena singing “O Canada” at the final buzzer.

It still feels impossible to count out the defending champions. This is too somber of an ending for a team that has dominated the league for half a decade. But as of Friday night, Kerr and the Warriors are simply “hoping” Kevin Durant can come back for Game 5 at Scotiabank Arena on Monday.

Maybe that would give Golden State the ammunition it needs. The team is going to need both the experience of coming back from 3-1 once before and Durant’s superior talent.

Regardless, this hole the Warriors have dug themselves into is deep. And if they can’t pull out if it, it may be a stunning end to one of the greatest dynasties in NBA history.

                  

Follow Will on Twitter, @wontgottlieb.