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NBA Finals 2019: Toronto Raptors On Brink Of History With 3-1 Series Lead

This article is more than 4 years old.

Game 4 was a major turning point in the NBA Finals on Friday night in Oakland, and it put the Toronto Raptors on the brink of history with a chance to become the first team outside the United States to be crowned NBA champions.

Teams that take a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals have a 33-1 series record (.971). The only time a team with a 3-1 lead did not win the Finals was 2016, when the Cleveland Cavaliers rallied past the Warriors.

Of the previous 34 teams to take a 3-1 series lead in the NBA Finals:

  • 18 teams won the series in five games
  • 13 teams won the series in six games
  • 2 teams won the series in seven games
  • 1 team lost the series in seven games

More specifically, the third quarter was when everything changed in favor of Toronto against the Golden State Warriors. At the start of the quarter, Kawhi Leonard delivered a couple of three-point daggers just 16 seconds apart. That took the life out of the two-time defending champions.

The first (video clip below) came with 11:30 remaining in the third quarter and pulled the Raptors within one point, 46-45.

The second Leonard three-pointer (video clip below) in the third period came with 11:14 remaining and gave Toronto its first lead of the game, 48-46.

It's extraordinary that the Raptors could start the game so poorly and rebound to win 105-92 and take a 3-1 stranglehold on the series heading back to Toronto for Monday.

Both teams got off to shockingly bad shooting starts. But the Raptors were really horrible and, watching this disaster unfold, you would not bet on the final outcome at this point.

"In the first quarter we got the shot that we wanted to, but they didn’t go in," Raptors' Pascal Siakam said. "We felt that they could have taken a bigger lead, but we kind of hung around. In the third quarter, we came out aggressive and made sure we came out with the same energy and intensity. I think we did a really good job of that tonight."

The Warriors led by as many as 13 points and Toronto was behind 25-17 after the opening 12 minutes. The Warriors had Klay Thompson back after missing the previous game with a hamstring injury, and Kevon Looney had returned, too.

If it were not for Leonard, this game would have been over right then and there. Leonard carried the Raptors with 14 points in the opening 12 minutes. Kyle Lowry had two and Pascal Siakam had one. Danny Green was out of sync, shooting 0-for-4 from the field. This did not look good.

As a team, the Raptors were shooting 28.6%, while the Warriors were cruising along at 50%.

But the Raptors chipped away and they pulled to within four points at halftime, trailing 46-42. Still, there were troubling signs. Leonard had no points in the second quarter on 0-of-4 shooting. As a team, the Raptors shot only 39.1%.

Everything turned in the third quarter, mostly because of Leonard, who settled into a rhythm, scoring 17 points in that quarter on 5-of-8 shooting. And the emergence of Serge Ibaka as an offensive and defensive force put Toronto on a winning course.

The third quarter had always been Golden State's period of brilliance. Yet Toronto decided this was going to be their time. Leonard was only part of the story.

Toronto played Fred VanVleet almost the whole third quarter to keep the pace going at a high level, and gave Ibaka big minutes to guard the net. Toronto won that quarter 37-21 on 52% shooting, while the Warriors sagged to 35% shooting.

In the end, Leonard led Toronto with a game-high 36 points, and three other Raptors were in double figures: Ibaka had 20 points, Pascal Siakam scored 19 and Lowry had 10.

By shooting 9-of-12 from the field, Ibaka is the first reserve to score 20 or more points and shoot at least 75% from the field in an NBA Finals game since the Detroit Pistons’ Vinnie Johnson at the Portland Trail Blazers on June 12, 1990.

After a career playoff high of 47 points in Game 3, Golden State's brilliant Steph Curry was pretty much bottled up, although he had 27 points while Thompson had another strong game with 28.

For Toronto, Leonard again got the Raptors out of a dark shooting place. Overall, he shot 11 of 22 from the field, including a game-high 12 rebounds, while Ibaka shot 9-of-12 with four rebounds and two blocks.

It was another miserable night for Danny Green, who was 1-for-8 (12.5%) and three points, but the Raptors as a team overcame his offensive lapses. There is a word for that. It's called resilience.

The Raptors have treated this whole series with a laser focus. They say they never look ahead too far. They don't celebrate wildly after victories. They are all business. It will be difficult to carry themselves with such poise on Monday with the championship trophy in the house.

It now seems all but guaranteed that the Raptors will earn their place in history as the first team outside the United States to win an NBA championship after 24 years of existence, and Leonard is on pace to win his second NBA Finals most valuable player award after winning one with San Antonio in 2014. Here is a list of NBA MVP winners.

The city of Toronto and the entire country will be going berserk on Monday, and there may be more nervous moments for the Raptor faithful. But this Toronto team seems to court disaster and then find ways to claw themselves out.

Remember when people counted them out when they were down 2-0 to the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference finals?

It's hard to believe that the Golden State Warriors could be anything but demoralized now. But these are two-time defending champions who have been to five straight NBA Finals and have won three of those. They won't go down without a fight.

There's plenty of fight in these Raptors, too, as evidenced by Fred VanVleet's return to the bench after taking a sharp elbow to the head in the second half, being cut for seven stitches and losing part of a tooth, hockey-style. "If that's what being Canadian is, I'm not sure I want it," VanVleet wise-cracked.

Here's what the Raptors and Warriors were saying after Game 4:

Well, we had a big problem with the third quarter in Game 2, so we had to make some adjustment there to try to combat the way they come out of the half. They have been historically really good at that. We made the decision to put Fred in in Game 3 and then Game 4 again tonight. And mostly it's to try to keep up pace of our offense going, it gives us two point guards out there that can push the ball, get it in and get it going, and it kind of paid off.

Raptors coach Nick Nurse

Nick Nurse said Kawhi Leonard's pair of three-pointers after the first half changed the momentum.

I know Kawhi's two big threes to start the half really I thought changed the whole feel of everybody. I just thought everybody was like, okay, man, we know we are here, let's go, and we just kind of kept going from those two threes.

Raptors coach Nick Nurse

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr also thought Kawhi Leonard's threes at the beginning of the third quarter changed everything.

I thought they just took it to us right from the beginning of the quarter. 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.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr

Here's what others were saying after Game 4:

The faces of the Warriors told a story not only of the crumbling moment, but also of the suddenly deteriorating future. The look on Kawhi’s face, on the other hand, betrayed nothing but a sense of calm: He makes changing history look like solitary practice in the gym.

The Ringer's Danny Chau

Here is Chau's story.

The Raptors are just better than the Warriors, reports William Lou of Yahoo Sports Canada.

ESPN's Brian Windhorst takes a look at the five moments that helped pave Toronto's road to the NBA Finals.

Here's what others around the NBA are saying:

Below are the highlights of Game 4.

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