Highlights

Breakfast Special: Until the Road Team Wins a Game

- by Fox Doucette

The Golden State Warriors scored 109 points in each of the first two games of the NBA Finals.

Trouble for Toronto came when they scored 118 in the first game and just 104 in the second, leaving the series tied at 1, home court advantage for now having evaporated, and the series on its way back to Oakland for Games 3 and 4 as the Dubs send off Oracle Arena in potential in-six championship fashion before heading into the new fancy digs in San Francisco next season.

Game 2 was made possible by one of Golden State’s patented third quarters, as they came out of the break down 59-54—nearly exactly half the score of Game 1 for both teams, incidentally—and started to combine lockdown defense with the offense finally getting going, powering a huge 18-point unanswered run out of the locker room that gave them a lead they would not relinquish.

Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson combined for 48 points on 16-of-34 shooting, with Thompson putting up a solid 10-of-17 before falling to injury; whether he’s joining Kevin Durant on the shelf remains to be seen, but Golden State just seems to keep plugging, their much-maligned paper-thin bench doing just enough to keep them in games.

Draymond Green has gone full 2015 in this series, as he had 17 points, 10 rebounds, and nine assists, nearly notching his second straight Finals triple-double. He was the team’s third-leading scorer behind Thompson (25) and Curry (23.)

And that bench I mentioned? 10-of-20 including 3-of-9 from three, a solid 25 points (Shaun Livingston had a pair of free throw attempts and made them both) to contribute.

DeMarcus Cousins, seemingly barred by the basketball gods from playoff glory after spending the first seven seasons of his career in Sacramento and most of his two playoff runs in New Orleans and Oakland injured, came to life in the third quarter and ended the game with 11 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists.

Toronto got 34 points and 14 rebounds out of Kawhi Leonard; they got just about nothing out of anyone else as they shot 37.2 percent from the field and 28.9 percent from long range.

Fred VanVleet had 17 off the bench, but he needed a 7-of-17 shooting night to do it.

It would seem an up-tempo game doesn’t favor the Raptors; after they dragged the pace down both in Game 6 against the Bucks and in Game 1 of this series, being forced to a 100.0 pace did no favors for Toronto’s efficiency and they got run off the floor—well, as close to run off the floor as you can get when you only lose by five.

Kawhi was valiant in defeat:

But when you got the Boogie in your soul, you’re gonna be dancing home for Game 3:

Klay Thompson’s hot hand wins ballgames:

Steph, of course, gonna Steph:

And the Andre Iguo-Dagger:

And we can’t forget Draymond and his versatility:

Game 3 Wednesday. Breakfast Thursday. Features in the meantime. And over 4,000 reads in May, the third time we’ve done that in a month here (June ’18 and January ’19.)

You guys rock. Stay tuned, and thanks for reading!

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