How Kawhi Leonard likely wrecked the Warriors’ three-peat aspirations
OAKLAND, Calif. — To open the third quarter in Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Friday night, Toronto Raptors backup point guard Fred VanVleet pushed the ball up the middle of the court in transition with Draymond Green backpedaling on defense.
In the point guard’s peripheral vision was Kawhi Leonard racing down the right wing.
VanVleet made a bounce pass to Leonard, and the star forward pulled up for a 3-pointer with Green running toward him on the closeout. The ball rattled out of the rim before eventually kissing the glass and falling through the twine.
Eight seconds later, Leonard picked off a pass intended for Green, dribbled up the floor and with no hesitation elevated over Green and splashed in a triple over the Golden State Warriors forward’s outstretched arms. Just like that, Leonard went on a personal 6-0 run to give the Toronto Raptors their first lead of the contest.
Oracle Arena went silent.
That was the moment the Golden State Warriors officially lost control of Game 4, with Leonard proceeding to pour in 17 of his game-high 36 points in the third, a quarter that very well might have ended the Warriors’ chances at a three-peat.
“Kawhi Leonard came out and hit two big F-you shots to start the half. There’s no defense for that,” VanVleet said after the Raptors won 105-92 on Friday, taking both games in Oakland. “There are no schemes for that. That’s two big-boy shots that he came out of the half with, two back-to-back threes. And that just kind of let you know how we were going to approach the third quarter and the rest of the half. It put us in good position.”
Leonard also pulled down a game-high 12 boards and was 5-of-9 from 3-point range.
With a commanding 3-1 series lead, one by one, the Raptors players took the long path back to the locker room after the final buzzer sounded. Not one player was smiling and not one celebrated. Expressions were deadpan. You couldn’t tell if they had just won or lost.
“It doesn't matter until you get that fourth win,” Leonard said. “We just have to stay confident in ourselves, be patient, don't try to rush things, and see how it plays out.”
Gone are the days of the Raptors facing adversity and folding. Throughout Game 4, team sources told Yahoo Sports, when the Warriors went on runs, Leonard would calmly remind his teammates in timeout huddles, “We’re good. We’re just fine.”
That serene but confident influence has taken over the team.
“It's not over yet, so I can't say that we're better,” Leonard said. “Just the key to tonight's win was pretty much, as you guys know, playing defense. And towards that second half, we started to make some shots, and we just pretty much stuck into the game, stayed in the game.”
Also present for the Raptors is an edge that frankly didn’t exist before.
Toronto assistant coach Phil Handy — an Oakland native — addressed the team after Game 3 of the semifinals against the Philadelphia 76ers for not taking exception to Joel Embiid’s flying airplane gesture after a windmill dunk, sources told Yahoo Sports.
Embiid had led the Sixers to a 116-95 victory with 33 points on 9-of-18 shooting to go with 10 rebounds and five blocks.
Handy’s postgame message, sources said, was heard loud and clear: showboating would not be tolerated and it should infuriate them.
The Raptors responded.
Over the next four games with an uptick in physicality, Embiid’s productivity plummeted as he averaged 15.5 points and shot 37 percent from the field.
Raptors coach Nick Nurse was complimentary of the team as a whole, noting the “load management” games Leonard took off during the regular season helped develop the Raptors’ youth even though the method wasn’t favorably received by the masses.
“That criticism didn’t bother me one bit,” Nurse told Yahoo Sports. “And I give our other guys credit because we played our asses off when he wasn’t in. We went 17-5 in those 22 load-management games. It helped us and it helped developed the other guys as well. You can see it with the way we’re playing now, and [Leonard] trusts them.”
The silent assassin in Leonard may have claimed another victim Friday night.
With the opportunity to close out the series in Game 5 on Monday in Toronto, Oracle Arena might have already begun its extended vacancy with the Warriors moving to the Chase Center in San Francisco for the 2019-20 season.
Fans in disgust headed for the exits midway through the fourth quarter for perhaps their final time. While with the San Antonio Spurs, Leonard stood in the way of the Miami Heat’s attempted three-peat in 2014, and it appears he’s on the verge of doing it again to another all-time great team.
“I don't think you're ever going to rattle Kawhi,” Green said. “Not sure we used that word one time in our scouting report, [that] we're going to rattle him. But you just try to make him take tough shots, and you live with the results.”
One more win and the results will prove that not only are the Raptors the best team in basketball, but that Leonard has also been the best player of these playoffs.
“He’s a hell of a player,” Nurse told Yahoo Sports. “He can do it all.”
More from Yahoo Sports:
