OAKLAND — When the Raptors got off of the bus at Oracle Arena they were up 13 points before they even tipped Game 3. Once boyz announced that Klay Thompson would sit out along with Kevon Looney and KD you knew that it was going to be a problem for the defending champs. When the smoke cleared Toronto was walking out of the joint with a 123-109 Game 3 win. Now they’re up 2-1.
Steph Curry got out of the ride scoring 12 of the Warriors first 14 points. However, Toronto was blazin’ hot shooting 63 percent from the field through the first 8 minutes going up by double digits 26-16. You could see the look of desperation on the faces of the players from up North. They weren’t playing around scoring 36 points in the first quarter to lead 36-29.
Taking advantage of the Warriors being snake bitten was the priority. Again, the Warriors were without Klay who sat with a strained hamstring, Looney was out with the chest contusion and of course no KD. It was time to shine for Toronto.
Knowing that his team was short handed Steph Curry scored 17 of his 47 points in the first quarter but the Raptors were in complete control very early on. Pascal Siakam was out there puttin’ boyz on skates dropping 12 of his 18 points within the first 16 minutes of the game.
At the break the Raptors were up 60-52 being led by Kyle Lowry’s 15 points as he knocked down three 3-pointers. Siakam had 14 points up to that point. Here was the problem. The Warriors scored 52 points at the break and Steph had 25 of them. As bad as they played in the first half with Curry leading the way they were only down 8 points.
Out of the break Steph Curry had on the full clown suit complete with the water spittin’ flower gettin’ crazy buckets. However, Toronto was unfazed by his efforts shooting that thang unconsciously. Kyle Lowry continued to find the three pointer with the wet jumper.
As much as Steph was putting in work for the Warriors the Raptors couldn’t miss. Fred VanFleet was nuts on both ends of the floor as Toronto went up 83-71 on a Kawhi Leonard three-pointer with 3:23 left to play in the third quarter. At the end of three periods the Raptors were up 96-83 after knocking down 14 three-pointers led by Danny Green’s 6. That’s NUTS!!!
The Raptors had gotten up to a 16 point lead but the short handed Warriors continued to battle cutting the lead down to 7 points with 10:30 left to play as Curry knocked down three free throws. However, the boyz from Up North kept getting buckets to keep the defending champs at bay.
The Raptors had 6 players in double figures led by Kawhi Leonard 30 with points followed by both Danny Green and Pascal Siakam’s 18 points. Up next Game 4 on Friday in Oakland. Stop me when I start lyin’!
Playas Thesaurus:
1) Dun: noun – the person in question, dude, guy, etc. It’s whoever I’m talkin’ about and its non-gender specific.