The Toronto Raptors' late Game 6 run which led them all the way to the NBA Finals
Sunday 26 May 2019 12:53, UK
The Milwaukee Bucks led by as much as 15 points in the second half of Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Toronto Raptors - but this team refuses to know when to give up.
Trailing by 15 points with 2:18 remaining in the third quarter, the Raptors scored the final 10 points of the frame and went on to take a 100-94 victory at Scotiabank Arena to seal the first NBA Finals appearance in franchise history.
A 17-2 run saw Toronto tie the game and, sparked by a vociferous home crowd, they were able to seal an historic victory down the stretch.
"It's still surreal to me right now," said Raptors' Kawhi Leonard. "But this is what we've been striving for all season. It's not over yet."
Eight of the 10 points to end the third quarter were scored by the Klaw and the other basket, a shook shot by Serge Ibaka, was assisted by him.
The former San Antonio Spur also grabbed five key rebounds, one off his own free throw miss, during that time to cut the lead to a far more manageable five points going into the fourth.
"He inspired us tonight with monster rebounds," Raptors head coach Nick Nurse said. "It wasn't going well for us, it was kind of a frustrating night, but we kept playing."
Leonard rested for the first three minutes of the fourth quarter and by the time he returned his team were two points up.
Pascal Siakam added 18 points, Kyle Lowry had 17 and Fred VanVleet scored 14 for the Raptors who had strong nights to support Leonard, with 27 points and a career-best 17 rebounds to lead his team.
A couple of minutes after he re-entered the game he slammed a huge dunk in transition over MVP candidate Giannis Antetokounmpo, following a smart steal and run out by Lowry - watch it in the clip directly below.
Leonard, who was the 2014 Finals MVP when he won the title with the Spurs, said: "We were on a run. The building exploded after that dunk, got us a little bit more adrenaline to get another stop.
"I've been playing with him for a while, (that's) chemistry right there. I know to keep running with Kyle and I know that if he's not got anything easy, he's going to make the right play."
"It was a momentum kind of capper," Lowry added. "We kind of were on a run, and why not feed the big dog? Let the big dog eat. I'm always going to look for the guy that I know can finish with the best of them. That's what he did.
"Kawhi stays level-headed all the time. He brought that pedigree with him."
Antetokoumnpo and Leonard had a word together on the court at the end of the game and the Greek Freak analysed where his team went wrong post-game before causing a stir by walking out of the press conference, apparently irked by a journalist's question about his team's level of experience.
Before he left, he said: "We know that Toronto is a great team, they're going to make runs. The team just tried to stay focused and to move the ball, trust one another, execute...
"We knew that we were going to make a run but obviously we weren't able to read on the ball, run in transition and get easy points, so that's why we lost the game."
Nurse praised his team's ability to keep plugging away despite not having the best first half and was pleased with the response his side showed after the break. He reckons it's indicative of the Raptors' development throughout this playoff run.
The coach said: "We kind of regrouped at half-time and talked about 'let's just keep playing man, nobody's giving us this thing, we've got to go take it ourselves' and I thought we did a really good job of that in the second half.
"Even again, going down 15 or whatever we did, just keep on playing!
"Our communication, scheme, switching, blitzing, our rotations, contesting shots, all those things have been growing here since the start of the playoffs.
"The other thing is there are some moments, like stretches - we call them consecutive stops - and there are some stretches where it's darned hard to complete a pass against us. That wears into a team after a while when you're up into them and you're denying, and everybody is just that connected and playing that hard."
Raptors backup wing Norman Powell wasn't surprised that his team showed the mental strength to embark on the comeback and said Leonard had some words of wisdom for his teammates which helped them get the job done.
"It's what you live for, what you play basketball for, for those type of adversity moments," Powell said. "The one thing Kawhi really stressed to us was just to enjoy it. Don't get too out of character, just enjoy the moment and continue to go out there and just lay it on the floor. So it was an amazing feeling just to be able to battle and chip away at it.
"It's how you make history."
And the Raptors stand on the cusp of exactly that now. It's a first Eastern Conference title for the franchise since it was founded in 1995 and they now have the chance to lift the Larry O'Brien Trophy if they can prevent the Golden State Warriors from winning a third consecutive NBA crown.
It's a far cry from the side which were known as playoff bottlers prior to the blockbuster trade for Leonard in the summer and team president Masai Ujiri now looks fully vindicated for the move, which controversially saw DeMar DeRozan shipped out.
Lowry was DeRozan's buddy and has been through many playoff failures in his seven years with the Raptors but he now has the chance to win a ring.
"It means a lot to me," Lowry said. "We beat a really good team in Milwaukee, but I'm not satisfied yet. Our goal is to win the NBA championship."
Game 1 of the NBA Finals takes place in Toronto in the early hours of Friday morning (2am) live on Sky Sports Arena.
