TORONTO — Well playas…Golden State did what Golden State does, WIN. They walked out of Scotia Bank Arena with a “W” after Game 2 winning it 109-104 to knot the series up 1-1. They’ve now taken the home court advantage away from Toronto like most rational thinking human beings thought that they would.
They’d been sitting for a week and a half waiting for the Finals to start and got caught looking both ways in the middle of the street in Game 1. However, not in Game 2 though. The Bear had been poked and he was up looking for picnic baskets in the second half.
The Warriors didn’t play particularly well in the opening half but were lucky to only be down 59-54 at the break.
They jumped out of the ride and went on an 18-3 run to start the second half scoring the first 18 points of the quarter. Toronto went scoreless for more 5 minutes with 5 of their total 15 turnovers going 0-8 from the floor before they could find a bucket. They couldn’t hit an elephant in the butt with a base fiddle. In other words the jumper was bone dry.
I kept telling boyz that after Toronto won Game 1 that they’d poked the bear and Golden State would be up looking for picnic baskets. Well…let’s just say that the bear ate and he ate good in the third quarter. However, the Raptors seemed to settle down as they began to find a rhythm after a more that 5 minute drought.
Kawhi scored 8 of his 34 points in the third quarter. As much as the cats from Up North battled to stay on the Ferris wheel they couldn’t keep up with the boyz from the Bay Area. Surprisingly enough, Andrew Bogut did damage off of the bench for the Warriors with multiple back door tip-ins or alley oops that kept the Raptors at arm’s length. He only scored 6 points but they were critical buckets at the right time.
Toronto began playing a box in one that seemed to work by keeping Golden State from scoring. However, they couldn’t take advantage of the opportunity because they couldn’t hit water if they’d fallen out of a boat.
Down the stretch they found a way to get buckets and by the 1:08 mark of the fourth it was a 106-101 game with Golden State on top. With 26 seconds left Danny Green knocked down a 25-footer to pull the Raptors to within 2 making it 106-104. However, Andre’ Iguodala answered with a 27-foot three-pointer to seal it with 7 seconds to play to put the Warriors up 109-104. At that point it was just a matter of formality.
What was so crazy is that Golden State didn’t score but one bucket in the last five and a half minutes of the ball game and that was the Iguodala three to seal it. Absolutely incredible!!! Now it’s all knotted up at 1-1 going back to Oracle Arena on Wednesday and Friday night.
Klay Thompson, who left the game with a strained left hamstring, led Golden State with 25 points. Steph Curry dropped off a solid 23 points while Draymond Green’s 17 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists was simply crazy. He’s been ballin’ out of control here lately.
Kawhi led the Raptors with 34 points followed by Fred VanFleet’s 17 off of the bench.
