Kawhi Leonard had another solid game and earned NBA Finals MVP, and Klay Thompson suffered an ACL injury in the third quarter as the Toronto Raptors rallied to defeat the Golden State Warriors 114-110 in Game 6 of the NBA Finals at Oracle Arena. Toronto wins the series 4-2, ending a 26 year title drought for the city and capturing the first major championship since Joe Carter hit a game ending and series ending homerun against the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1993 World Series. The game also ends the run of the Oracle Arena after 47 years, as the Warriors will move to a new arena in San Francisco next season.
Toronto scored the first eight points of the game and had a nine point first quarter lead. Golden State came back to grab a pair of one point leads, but the Raptors led by a point at the end of the first. The visitors continued to lead for most of the second quarter, but the Warriors did take their biggest lead of the first half when Andre Iguodola slammed home an ally oop pass from Draymond Green at 46-43. Toronto led at the half 60-57.
With the Raptors holding a 76-73 lead in the third quarter, it looked as if the Warriors were poised to start taking over going on a 7-0 run to take an 80-76 lead on a Steph Curry jumper with 4:03 left. The turning point seem to come when Thompson went hard to the basket with 2:22 left. The guard was fouled hard by Danny Green and landed awkwardly in what turns out to be a torn ACL injury. Thompson started to walk back to the locker room but came back on the court to shoot his free throws and give Golden State their biggest lead of the night at 85-80. Thompson seemed to want to stay on the floor on the next defensive possession, but the Warriors committed a foul so he could come out and head back to the locker room under the direction of the training staff. Toronto cut the Golden State lead to just two by the end of the quarter.
In the fourth quarter Toronto regained the lead 104-101 on a Fred VanFleet three pointer with 3:46 left, a lead they would never give back. The Rapors built the lead back to as many as six, before a layup in the lane by the Warriors DeMarcus Cousins cut it to a single point with 46.9 seconds left. Pascal Siakam regained a Toronto three point lead when he nailed a floating jumper 18 seconds later. Curry got fouled and hit a pair from the line with 18.5 seconds remaining to once again cut it to a point. The Warriors didn’t foul and pressured the ball forcing a Green turnover to get one more chance with less than 10 seconds showing on the clock. Curry missed a three on a set play, and the loose ball was finally gathered in by Green who called a timeout but the Warriors didn’t have any left resulting in a technical foul. Leonard made the technical foul shot for a two point lead, then was grabbed and fouled where he made two more free throws to ice the game with less than a second left.
Toronto put five players in double figures led by both Kyle Lowry and Siakam who had 26 points each. Lowry also had seven rebounds, 10 assists, and three steals. Siakam also got a double double adding 10 rebounds and three assists. Leonard finished with 22 points, six rebounds, three assists, and two steals. VanFleet also had 22 points. Serge Ibaka also chipped in 15 points. Thompson had a game high despite leaving in the third quarter putting in 30 points on 8-12 shooting (4-6 three-pointers). Iguodola had 22 points. Curry had 21 points, seven assists, and two steals. Cousins added 12 points and five rebounds, while Green had a big game filling up the stat sheet with a triple double going for 11 points, 19 rebounds, 13 assists, three steals, and two blocks.
Toronto finishes with a final season record of 74-32, going 16-8 in the playoffs. Golden State was 71-33, 14-8 in the postseason. The Warriors will have alot of uncertainty entering next season with Kevin Durant suffering an Achilles injury, and Thompson injuring his ACL with both players possibly missing the entire 2019-2020 season. Leonard becomes the first player ever to win the NBA Finals MVP in both the Eastern and Western Conference. He is also the first to win an NBA title in two countries in the United States with the Spurs, and now in Canada with the Raptors. He finished this postseason third all-time in scoring, putting in 732 points in the 2019 NBA playoffs (30.5 points per game average).
