Watch Game 3 in Oakland in the early hours of Thursday morning (2am) live on Sky Sports Arena
Wednesday 5 June 2019 11:27, UK
The Toronto Raptors have a great opportunity to regain the initiative in the NBA Finals given the plethora of injuries that have plagued the Golden State Warriors - but team veteran Kyle Lowry they are not changing their approach.
The Warriors will be without two-time reigning Finals Most Valuable Player Kevin Durant and backup forward Kevon Looney - who has been ruled out for the series - for Game 3 while sharp-shooting guard Klay Thompson is questionable with a hamstring injury.
Playing without such personnel could put the battered and bruised Warriors' 'Strength in Numbers' slogan to the test but the Raptors do not feel an added sense of urgency with the best-of-seven series tied at one game apiece.
"No matter the situation. We want to be the first to four, and every game is an urgent game. You're in the NBA Finals, so it doesn't matter," Raptors guard Lowry told reporters on Tuesday.
"They still have professional basketball players down there, and they're really talented basketball players. So you still got to be ready to go out there and play your butt off and play hard."
The timeline for Durant's return from a calf injury remains unclear but the dominant forward, who has missed his team's last seven games, is ramping up his exercise routine and could be ready to go for Friday's Game 4 in Oakland.
Looney is out for the rest of the series after suffering a cartilage fracture in the Warriors' Game 2 win on Sunday while Thompson's status for Game 3 is questionable.
While Toronto would love to take advantage of an injury-hit lineup, they are not getting ahead of themselves.
The Raptors, playing in the first NBA Finals in the team's 24-year history, are instead taking a normal approach into the contest with a focus on addressing a need to score more after shooting just 37.2 per cent from the floor in Game 2.
"It's always a game of rhythm a little bit and you have to watch what's happening," said Raptors coach Nick Nurse. "We talk a lot about our shot spectrum, the shots we're trying to get.
"We have to get a certain amount of paint touches. We have to get the ball side to side. Those are things you just have to keep an eye on. I think we just had some lulls in those three areas in Game 2."
Game 3 takes place in Oakland in the early hours of Thursday morning (2am) live on Sky Sports Arena.
