OAKLAND – After hiring a first-time head coach and acquiring the NBA’s premier two-way player last summer, conventional wisdom concluded the Toronto Raptors would be interesting, to say the least, this season, with a chance to be excellent.
If the new coach, Nick Nurse, bonded with the roster and small forward Kawhi Leonard was healthy, maybe they’d stay close to the Celtics, who were heavy favorites to win the Eastern Conference and were given the best chance of toppling the kingdom of the back-to-back champion Warriors.
Entering the second quarter of the season, the Celtics are stumbling and fighting to stay above .500. The Warriors haven’t won a road game in a month and are a week removed from their longest losing streak since Andris Biedrins was on the roster.
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The Raptors? They have the best record in the league (18-4) and the most impressive start in their 23 years as a franchise.
Which makes the Warriors-Raptors game Thursday at Scotiabank Arena a true marquee game. It’s the champ vs. the fast-rising challenger. That the Warriors will be without Stephen Curry and Draymond Green somewhat dims its brilliance, but it’s still very a intriguing matchup.
When Klay Thompson said this “might be a preview of June,” when the NBA Finals begin, he could have added three words, thus reading this might be a preview of a globally captivating June.
The Warriors under coach Steve Kerr have never lost to Toronto, but that eight-game win streak is on serious jeopardy against the remade Raptors.
Golden State Warriors
“They’re fast, they’re versatile, they’re playing better than anybody in the league right now,” Kerr told reporters in Toronto on Thursday. “And they’re huge threat to come out of the East. I’m impressed.”
Point guard Kyle Lowry leads the league in assists (10.2 per game), Serge Ibaka is back at center and averaging a career-high in points (16.6), shooting guard Danny Green leads the league in net rating and power forward Pascal Siakam is fourth in net rating and fifth in effective field-goal percentage.
And Leonard, he’s put himself in the MVP conversation despite still getting accustomed to the pace of the league after playing in only nine games last season.
“They’ve got a complete team,” Kevin Durant said.
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Toronto was good enough last season to earn the top seed in the East, winning a franchise-record 59 games. But after a second straight second-round flameout in the postseason, the Raptors fired coach Dwane Casey – who later was named Coach of the Year – and then made the biggest trade of the offseason, moving All-Star shooting guard DeMar DeRozan, backup big man Jakob Poeltl and a protected 2019 first-round pick to San Antonio for the disgruntled Leonard and Green.
DeRozan is a nice offensive player. Leonard is a nice offensive player and also a two-time Defensive Player of the Year. He is that exceedingly rare player that can shut down a quality individual on one end and cook him on the other.
Indeed, it is Leonard’s presence – along with Nurse putting some jet fuel into the offense – that has the Raptors where they are.
“Kawhi is underrated,” Andre Iguodala said. “He’s that good, and people recognize it, and he’s still underrated.
“He’s an easy top-five player. He has this mentality about him, this focus that is up there, maybe top two, maybe No. 1, as far as his mindset. He is in the game. Man, this dude is special. He uses every inch of his skill set on the court. He uses it all.”
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And yet, there is another layer to these Raptors: Toronto may be the deepest team in the league. Eleven players average more than 14 minutes per game. Five players have double-figure scoring averages, led by Leonard’s 24.3 per game, and three more are above 8 points per game.
"Their bench, last year you saw them take a step up,” Durant said. “And this year, they’re still on that progression of being a great bench, one of the best in the league and probably tops.”
Warriors-Raptors deserves the big stage. It deserves both teams at full strength and the full spotlight of June. With a little more than four months to go, it’s hard to visualize a more compelling NBA Finals.