NBA: 2018-2019 Season

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Another spectacular win by the Raptors in Game 4 at Golden State, this time being a 13-point difference! Now with a commanding 3-1 lead, they are only one win away from capturing their first ever NBA title!

However, I think it's still early to celebrate yet. Who knows what may happen in Game 5? I'm still worried that there might be a comeback by the Warriors that might happen in the next games but nevertheless...
 
Could the 2018-2019 season of NBA basketball end tonight? It will if Toronto wins tonight in Toronto, Ontario, Canada for Game 5 of the NBA Finals. The Cleveland Cavaliers of 2016 came back from a 3-1 deficit- and against the Golden State Warriors. Will Golden State finally be thwarted, or can they force a Game 6 back in Oakland? Tonight will tell a lot.

In case this series is extended, here are the other dates of this series:
* Game 6: TOR Raptors at GS Warriors (Thursday; if needed)
* Game 7: GS Warriors at TOR Raptors (Sun, June 16; if needed)

But again- worry about the dates above ONLY if this series gets extended. This USA vs. Canada 2018-2019 NBA Finals continues tonight in beautiful Toronto, Ontario, Canada.


Good luck to both Golden State and Toronto tonight. And if Toronto wins tonight, congratulations on your first-ever NBA championship!
 
I want to take time in this separate post to wish Tony Parker well in his retirement. He was a pain in the butt to my Houston Rockets when dealing with his San Antonio Spurs. At 37 years old with 18 years of service to the NBA, Tony Parker is hanging it up and calling it a career. Congratulations on an amazing career to Tony Parker.
 
The Dubs barely escape with a win in Game 5 at Toronto LMAO. :lol::lol::lol:

A big thanks to Kevin Durant's 11 points which sparked them to an earlier lead. However, after he left, Toronto was able to catch up in 4th quarter and while they were leading by 6 points, with a crucial timeout and 3 minutes left, it suddenly rained with 3s from Golden State that allowed them to score to be tied with Toronto and be ahead of them. Though I thought it was gonna head into overtime, the latter just scored 2 points after that.

Man, aren't this team really so lucky this time? But too bad KD won't be playing anymore for the remainder of the series. :lol:
 
The Raptors need to regroup and remember they can still win this series. Once again, they barely lost in a game due to not scoring, this time by shooting 26% from the 3. Nurse's timeout when Leonard finally got hot was bad, too. Killed all his momentum. Otherwise, Toronto did beat GS at Oracle twice and this time, there's no fear of Durant maybe coming back, so there's no need to plan for him.

On that front, I wish KD the best. His career could be changed in that one moment if its his achilles as everyone suspects. Don't think we'll ever know if it was ultimately his decision to play or if the team wanted him too. But, the medical staff did deny Klay when he wanted to play and they reported that organization was giving Durant space after the injury, (plus there was a report claiming his teammates were wondering where he was at over the last 2 games), so it doesn't look great for the Warriors FO.

Edit*
Just reported. He did injure his achilles.
 
Yup, KD's 11 points was really crucial in this game. If it wasn't for that one, then maybe this series would have been done already with the Raptors receiving their first ever title here.

That unbelievable comeback is what I was really fearing the most. However, because of that, he has now aggravated his leg injury even further, turning his calf strain into tearing his achilles. But prior to that, the staff said that he was already cleared to play in this game and that he also went to the practice with the team.

Still, it is unfortunate but I somehow already knew this was coming, as it is never impossible to reinjure himself in his current state. That would have never happened if he never played at all. Nevertheless, I do hope for the best for Durant though and wish a good luck to him.

However, without him to back his teammates up anymore, there still lies a big, daunty task ahead for the rest of the Warriors of winning two straight games if they are to capture their third consecutive NBA title, the 4th in 5 years, though if that unimaginable really happened miraculously, I would have to admit that would be boring for me.

So obviously, it is still not over yet.
 
I think that blame will fall on the medical staff if they cleared him; you can't trust a player's decision, Chauncey Billups has confirmed that using himself as an example. Myers did defend his staff & accept the blame.
 
Yes, even Steve Kerr did believe he was already doing fine because of the fact that the medical staff has cleared him to play earlier.

Anyway, I hope this series will not end up with Toronto blowing their big lead. That would really be a lot frustrating than one could ever imagine.
 
Then the barney jokes will be alive again, I guess. And maybe Drake might get picked on for being a loyal fan, too.
 
Tonight could be the final night of the 2018-2019 NBA basketball season if Toronto beat Golden State in Oakland, CA, USA tonight. Otherwise, we will have a Game 7 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on Sunday. Game 6 is tonight in the final-ever game at Oakland's Oracle Arena until the Warriors play in their new arena in San Francisco.


Good luck to Toronto and Golden State tonight. And if the Toronto Raptors win, congratulations on your first-ever championship!
 
The selfish part of me is disappointed we won't be able to celebrate here at home on Sunday...

But really, hell yes. Longest few minutes there, but the team did it. Awesome. Awesome awesome awesome. :D
 
GG. Looks like the long grind finally took its toll on my Warriors, but nothing to be ashamed of. They kept falling and fighting with what they had left, it just wasn't meant to be.

Congrats Canada, you now have yourselves an NBA championship! Only the best make it to the top, and you certainly proved to be.

Hey San Antonio, that 2014 Finals MVP you ran out of town? He's a champion again!

BR was right, there will be a new king in the east.
 
Amazing. Despite no KD and Klay leaving the game I thought that the Warriors would somehow get home in the end. Very happy for Toronto and their fans.

@Paulie are you okay? :lol:
 
Three-peat no more! :sly:

Congratulations to the Raptors and Kawhi Leonard for avoiding a three-peat attempt by the Warriors this year! :D

Man, how I thought that they would somehow blow this lead after being neck to neck with the Warriors but after Klay Thompson shot two free-throws before leaving the floor with an injured knee in 4th quarter? That was the end of it, the nail in the coffin...

Now, the Warriors have to deal with the injuries of their two superstars, as well as their pending free agencies come this off-season. I hope for the best for the two of them.

Anyways, the Klaw did also a good job in stopping them from making a three-peat, something that he also did to the Miami Heat 5 years ago as a Spur.

Btw, I wonder how Demar Derozan feels about him taking the Raptors to their first franchise title this year. It must be miserable.
 
Klay has a torn ACL; going to be out well into next season. Steph, Draymond, and this bench are going to struggle.
 
Imo it's a travesty that Pascal Siakam wasn't the finals MVP. Dude played out of his mind all series.
 
Imo it's a travesty that Pascal Siakam wasn't the finals MVP. Dude played out of his mind all series.
Probably because The Klaw has been the most consistent top scorer for the Raptors in most of the games in their first NBA Finals appearance. And Game 1 was the only game in which Siakam led the team by more than 30 points.
 
Imo it's a travesty that Pascal Siakam wasn't the finals MVP. Dude played out of his mind all series.
He was terrific in Games 1 and 6 but Kawhi balled out for the rest of them. He was worth his MVP, believe me.

Massive congratulations to the Raptors, a momentous success in the modern NBA. This will open the floodgates for everyone else now. The NBA really might be my favourite sporting championship now.

But your heart has to go out to the Warriors. There's injury luck, and then there's two of your stars suffering from some of the worst injuries imaginable. Wishing KD and Klay well, and heaven knows what happens to them in their impending free agency now they're stuck in injury hell for a long time. Still, excitement abounds. Next season is completely up in the air.
 
But your heart has to go out to the Warriors. There's injury luck, and then there's two of your stars suffering from some of the worst injuries imaginable. Wishing KD and Klay well, and heaven knows what happens to them in their impending free agency now they're stuck in injury hell for a long time. Still, excitement abounds. Next season is completely up in the air.
Suddenly the player option's looking mighty attractive to KD. As for Klay, the Warriors aren't just about to offer him anything less. Game 6 Klay came to play and brought them to within a shot of taking it back to Canada.
 
Suddenly the player option's looking mighty attractive to KD. As for Klay, the Warriors aren't just about to offer him anything less. Game 6 Klay came to play and brought them to within a shot of taking it back to Canada.
If Klay is injured and it will take him out a while, he might just stay in Golden State. If those two stay put, then Kawhi might do the same, meaning that there won't be a new challenger next year (aside from unexpected trades).
 
If Klay is injured and it will take him out a while, he might just stay in Golden State. If those two stay put, then Kawhi might do the same, meaning that there won't be a new challenger next year (aside from unexpected trades).
Does Kawhi even plan on staying in The North or will he be elsewhere the upcoming season? For some reason, I still feel it's the latter.
 
Here is your winner, and NEWWWWW NBA Champions- the Toronto Raptors!

I stopped following the NBA playoffs mostly when my Houston Rockets got eliminated. Yet still, I wanted to be sure to see who would win it all. I knew for the longest I saw the Toronto Raptors to represent the East in the NBA Finals. Never did I actually think the Raptors could represent the East AND win the championship. To me, the real key moment was that buzzer-beating shot to help them advance further into the playoffs with the score tied.

On the other hand, it shown just how broken down the Golden State Warriors had to be to be beaten. I was mad as hell my Rockets couldn't capitalize on the Warriors' weaknesses. Somehow, the Raptors had every possible break to try to subdue the almighty Warriors and knew how to take them down, unlike my Rockets (and several others who took on GS in the playoffs). I do offer my thoughts and prayers for Klay Thompson to have a great recovery from his injury.

I jokingly said this 2018-2019 NBA Finals was an "international incident," in that we had an American team against a Canadian team. Most of you know I am opposed to calling champions of a domestic sport as "World Champions," and I am not going to call the Toronto Raptors as "World Champions" even though they are champions of a domestic American league. It only seems like a World Championship because a team other than an American team from an American sporting league won the championship. It was no different when the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball won the World Series were champions, or even when various Canadian teams won the Stanley Cup in the NHL (Montreal the most recent from 1993 or so). Even still, this is not a "World Championship" team. Save "World Championship" for something like the FIBA World Basketball Cup or Olympics basketball. Or maybe save "World Championship" for if you beat the champions of leagues like the EuroLeague, the PBA (Philippine Basketball Association), and Australia's NBL in some kind of UEFA-style tournament or something.

"We the North... and we also NBA Champions!"

Now get ready, Raptors... the 29 other teams you proven to be better than will want to challenge you for the championship next season! That's right- all 29 American NBA teams trying to beat the lone remaining Canadian NBA team.


Well... that's another season of NBA basketball. If you would like to share your thoughts on all that has happened this NBA season, please feel free to do so.
 
Best season since I started following the NBA in 2012.

Kyle Lowry finally played a crucial game of basketball like he is supposed to be able to.

Neat stat: Serge Ibaka got a championship before Russell Westbrook and James Harden.
 
Best season since I started following the NBA in 2012.

Kyle Lowry finally played a crucial game of basketball like he is supposed to be able to.

Neat stat: Serge Ibaka got a championship before Russell Westbrook and James Harden.
Man, Kyle Lowry had the potential to hit a game buzzer beater during the last seconds of Game 5 to close the series already but his shot was partially blocked by Draymond Green, which allowed Golden State to escape with a narrow win. Many people believed that he choked right there because he had a bad shooting that night but in Game 6, he definitely made up for it and shined pretty well with around more than 15 points in the first quarter.

Meanwhile, Stephen Curry had a chance to save his team earlier and force a Game 7 when they trailed by one in the remaining 10 seconds. However, this time, his shot missed, which was completely opposite of what happened in Game 5 when he and Klay shot back to back three pointers in order to take a lead to win. Throughout Game 6, he also went 0-8 on go-ahead shots, something which wasn't admirable in his last game at the Oracle Arena.

Could it be because he had a dislocated finger which he received during their semifinals a month ago? One would wonder but I was amazed how this little guy could still play well with an injury like that. I mean while Kevin and Klay went missing for some games earlier, he was the one who lead the team and they could still keep up with a consistent pace. However, with all efforts he has mustered, along with his remaining team mates who are crippled by either fatigue or injuries, it went short lived against the Raptors last night. Although they believed that they were coming back from being down again, they just ran out of steam sooner than expected.

I am suddenly reminisced by the first time this team met with the Lebron-led Cavaliers in the Finals four years ago. As the latter's team were also riddled by injuries to Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love that time, Lebron and the rest of the Cavs back then were on the same boat as this team was this year. It would be that moment in which was the beginning of this new Warriors dynasty that would take on the league for half a decade.

Yup, so many feats, accolades and accomplishments achieved, all just within a few years. Nobody expected to see how successful they have become. Like what Draymond said, fun times indeed.

I may not be a Warriors fan; in fact, I started to despise the team after the 2015-16 NBA season since they went to break my Bulls's most recorded wins in a single NBA season but I would honestly admit that this team has really been incredible, being in the Finals for the last 5 years. The only other team in the league to achieve that same feat is the Boston Celtics.

The amazing turnaround for the Warriors happened when Steve Kerr became their head coach 5 years ago. He was also part of the MJ-led Bulls way back then when he was still a player. That's when they started making history and rose up to the ranks in this league.
 
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