toronto Page 14 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Tim Kawakami Self-Flagellated For Hours Over His Kevin Durant Column [Updates]

Last night, after Kevin Durant’s Achilles seemingly rolled up like a window shade during the Warriors must-win Game 5 against the Toronto Raptors, fans and reporters alike began a wild-eyed search for someone to blame. The question of blame here is complicated and multi-faceted and ultimately imposs...

There's Nothing Quite Like Draymond Green At Full Speed

Draymond Green’s curse (well, other than the invisible backpack) is that no matter how good he gets at basketball, the most immediately and undeniably impressive basketball feats, the truly unmistakable displays of superhuman ability, will never be available to him. He will never pour on the hailsto...

Who The Hell Knows How This Ends, But At Least It's Not Without A Fight

Nope, I have nothing for you. I cannot explain how the Golden State Warriors won Game 5 of the NBA Finals, and neither can any of you. A team in tatters refused to shred, and it remains obstinate in the face of a hockey team’s list of injuries. This is almost not at all about the Toronto Raptors any...

Who's To Blame?

The reactions to a catastrophic NBA injury usually unfold in very simple terms. Stomachs drop, deep sympathies are expressed for the player involved, and everyone moves on while shaking their heads and grumbling about how sometimes life just isn’t fair. Rarely do such injuries lead to the general ma...

The Raptors Blew It

Coming close hurts all the more when you can quantify just how close you came. One shot, or one missed shot, or one call the other way, or ... one timeout? The Raptors came oh so close to winning a championship Monday night, and it’s not the one-point final margin that’ll stick in craws and steal sl...

Several Minutes Of Horrendous Basketball Result In Warriors Surviving Game 5

Game 5 was anything but pretty. The first half was defined by Kevin Durant’s triumphant return, and then Kevin Durant’s disastrous re-injury. The second half was defined by one transcendent three-minute stretch from Kawhi Leonard, and then three minutes of ridiculous, frantic, slapstick mutual failu...

Kevin Durant Re-Crabs His Crabbed Leg, Dammit [Update]

Kevin Durant ripped off 11 points in an impressive first quarter of Monday night’s Game 5 in Toronto, burying three three-pointers and switching capably on defense and looking maybe a little bit stiff but otherwise really goddamn impressive. Then, in the second quarter, with the Warriors up five poi...

Kawhi Said "Fuck" [Update]

Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse told a story ahead of Monday night’s potential series-clincher Game 5, one that demonstrates the confidence and competitive spirit of basketball robot and Finals MVP frontrunner Kawhi Leonard. Shockingly, it has to do with Kawhi Leonard saying something aloud. E...

Kevin Durant Practiced, But Maybe Not That Much, And Nobody Knows What The Hell Is Going On

Kevin Durant’s month-long absence from the Golden State Warriors while he tries to recover from a calf injury has thrown the NBA Finals totally out of whack. Now, with the Warriors down 3-1 to the Raptors and facing a potential dynasty-ending Game 5 on Monday, Durant’s return seems like the only thi...

The Raptors Are The Warriors Now

Recency bias is a hateful but dominant force in the best-of-seven world, so the clear assumption to be made from Game 4 of the NBA Finals is that Game 6 seems unlikely. The Toronto Raptors are the new Golden State Warriors, and the Golden State Warriors are finally all about the trailing step, the a...

Kawhi Leonard Took Over And The Warriors Couldn't Do A Thing About It

The Warriors as currently constituted are “merely” a great NBA team. In just about any other context, it’s peak roster construction. A couple of all-world shooters, a couple of bangers down low with shots of their own, a scattering of role players each with their own specific skills, and an overall ...

Fred VanVleet: My Power Is Not Derived From My Son

One fun subplot of these NBA playoffs has been the resurgence of Raptors backup point guard Fred VanVleet. Through the first 15 games of the postseason, VanVleet was just one of the many Raptors role players struggling to find his shot while Kawhi Leonard dragged the team forward. He finally emerged...

The Warriors Aren't Just Going To Be Able To Wait For This Mess To Go Away [Update]

A lot has happened since Raptors guard Kyle Lowry was shoved by a Warriors fan after falling into the seats during Game 3: Lowry was understandably angry; the fan got ejected; after the game Lowry said the fan had made “vulgar” comments to him; this morning, the fan was identified as Mark Stevens, a...

Kevin Durant Is Fucking Up The Finals

In an ordinary Finals, the team in Golden State’s position, down 2-1 after dropping Game 3 at home, would be in real trouble, needing to win three out of four and at least once on the road to avoid elimination. Hell, the Warriors might even be in real trouble! Or maybe they aren’t the Warriors, but ...

Vlad Guerrero Jr.'s Righteous Dong Sent The Yankees To Hell Where They Belong

The vile and hideous New York Yankees were, inexplicably, somehow on the verge of maybe winning a game on Wednesday night, until a legend in the making shut them down. The Yanks have rightfully tasted victory only once in the month of June, and to prevent that disaster from happening again, the Toro...

Solo Steph Curry Is The Best Steph Curry

A thing that I will never stop inserting into conversations for the rest of my life is that I got to watch Steph Curry play (twice) while at Davidson—both of the Wildcats’ games at the Detroit Lions’ stadium when they made the Elite Eight during Curry’s sophomore season. Steph had 33 of his team’s 7...

The Raptors Won But Finals Chaos Still Reigns

It’s cheap to say that the Raptors beat the Gldn Stae Warors (which is to say, 63 percent of the Golden State Warriors) in Game 3 of the NBA Finals; in fact, it isn’t much of a stretch to say that the Raptors might have won the game anyway....

This Is Why Kyle Lowry Was So Pissed

Early in the fourth quarter of Toronto’s Game 3 road victory over the Warriors, play was held up for a minute while Kyle Lowry appeared to scold either a Warriors fan or multiple Warriors fans or the referees or arena security, or all of the above. Upon review, it appeared that Lowry was pissed beca...

Raptors Snatch Back Home-Court Advantage With Game 3 Beatdown Of Gutted Warriors

There may be no satisfying takeaway from Toronto’s Game 3 123–109 victory over the Warriors in Oakland, beyond the completely obvious reminder that however great Steph Curry is, he cannot beat an NBA Finals team completely by himself. Steve Kerr held Klay Thompson out of the action, and so the Warri...

Lost Canadian Tourists-Ass Basketball Team Needs Urgent Lift From Marin County To Oakland