toronto Page 21 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The Eastern Conference Playoffs Are Going To Be Good As Hell
The Eastern Conference has been dogshit since I started watching basketball, and though the conference’s 2019 Finals participant will surely be skiing uphill in pursuit of a title, the three most significant trades of deadline week all featured Eastern Conference teams getting better by acquiring pl...
This Is What It Takes To Sign Auston Matthews
The thing about building an elite team—something the Leafs have done for the very first time in the salary-cap era—is that, very quickly, you have to figure out how to pay for it. It gets top-heavy, and you either have to get creative, or see it all fall apart. The Maple Leafs already agreed to pay ...
Kenneth Faried Hustled The Raptors Into Oblivion
Kenneth Faried entered the league as an undersized, but explosive, power forward whose tenacity on the glass, high-flying dunks and absurd athleticism seemed to make up for the fact that he didn’t have many other discernible skills on the court. As his skills diminished in value and power—coupled wi...
Roy Halladay's Hats, Ranked
The late Roy Halladay earned a well-deserved first-ballot nod from the BBWAA on Tuesday, with 85.4 percent of voters enshrining him in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The two-time Cy Young winner Halladay enters Cooperstown with 203 career wins, 2,117 strikeouts, 64.3 WAR, and a whole lotta hats worn, as...
Marcus Smart "Dunked" Onto An Injured Kyle Lowry
The Celtics are playing in a pretty big game against the Raptors right now, and Marcus Smart added two points for his team and a ton of humiliation for his opponents on a “dunk” that ended with the guard landing a forearm drop on a hurt Kyle Lowry....
Come On, Kawhi Leonard Can't Blame The Media For This
Kawhi Leonard played in San Antonio last night for the first time since being traded from the Spurs to the Raptors, and he was booed heartily every time he touched the ball. The home crowd even whipped up enough bile to hit him with a “Traitor!” chant while he was shooting free throws. Leonard, some...
DeMar DeRozan Kicked The Raptors' Asses In A Sweet Revenge Game
Well that was decisive. The home crowd was bloodthirsty, the Spurs were aggressive as hell, and the Raptors were evidently not ready for all the intensity. Kawhi’s ballyhooed return to San Antonio was mostly a big old dud, and the Raptors were routed, by the score of 125–107....
The Spurs And Their Fans Are Out For Blood
Spurs fans wasted no time ending the mystery of how Kawhi Leonard would be received in San Antonio in his first post-trade visit, booing the shit out of him every time he touched the ball during pregame warmups. The Spurs were reportedly on the fence about showing a Kawhi tribute video tonight, conc...
Kawhi Leonard Turned Off The Jazz
Kawhi Leonard buried the Jazz under the most assaultive offensive output of his career on Tuesday, hanging an alarmingly efficient 45 points on 16-of-22 shooting in a 122-116 win. The Raptor-for-now ascended to a higher plane in his 19-point third quarter, sinking every shot he attempted. He did all...
Please Enjoy This Nikola Jokic-Ass Layup
The Nuggets’ 95-86 win over the Raptors on Sunday night wasn’t the prettiest imaginable matchup between each conference’s No. 1 team. It looked a lot more like the league’s No. 4 and No. 7 defense dragging each other through the muck while coping with a rash of injuries and putrid shooting, which ha...
The Difference In The East Could Be Andrei Vasilevskiy
In a just world, the Lightning and Maple Leafs would meet in the Eastern Conference final. But it is not a just world, and because the two clear best teams in the East also happen to be the two best teams in the Atlantic Division, the NHL’s playoff format puts the two on track for a second-round sho...
The Raptors Didn't Even Need Kawhi Leonard To Punk The Warriors In Oakland
Last week, the Warriors traveled to Milwaukee and avenged their early-season loss to the Bucks with ease, dispatching one of their possible Finals opponents without ever having to do to much. They clearly made a point of putting the Bucks in their place—increasingly rickety Andre Iguodala played 28 ...
Kawhi Leonard Has No Time For Your Damn Holiday Cheer
This is so good. A reporter in the scrum ahead of tonight’s Raptors-Clippers game thought it would be a good idea to ask the famously loquacious and good-humored Kawhi Leonard to recall his favorite Christmas memory. Kawhi’s answer is just the most curmudgeonly thing....
Nikola Jokic Is An Artist
The Nuggets beat the Raptors in Toronto Monday night, by the score of 106—103. This was the East’s best team by record against the West’s best team by record, and though it didn’t get the hype of Friday’s “Finals preview” matchup, both teams were at full strength, and both teams are rolling, and tha...
William Nylander Ends Holdout, Agrees To Six-Year Deal With Maple Leafs
The William Nylander saga officially came to a close on Saturday after the 22-year-old winger signed a contract extension with the Toronto Maple Leafs, as first reported by TSN’s Darren Dreger....
Pascal Siakam Is Fun For The Whole Family
Six-foot-nine and a grinning menace on the fast break? Check. Seven-foot-three wingspan and can be switched anywhere? Check. Glitch-like speed and the sweetest spin move going? Check. Extremely powerful name? Check. Dropped a 26-point, 8-for-10 bomb on the Warriors? As of last night, check....
![William Nylander And The Leafs Have 26 Hours To Figure This Out [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/xdyccglydedtrdg350fi.jpg)
William Nylander And The Leafs Have 26 Hours To Figure This Out [Update]
The Toronto Maple Leafs, with the newly acquired John Tavares leading the way, are enjoying a strong start to the 2018–19 season. With 36 points from 26 games and the best goal differential in hockey (+26), a team that lost a hard-fought seven-game first-round playoff series to the Bruins last sprin...
Kevin Durant Is Absurd
The Toronto Raptors beat the Golden State Warriors in overtime Thursday night by the score of 131–128. The matchup lost some of its potential juice due to the absence of Steph Curry and Draymond Green, but the basketball itself was terrific. Kawhi Leonard was great. Pascal Siakam was great. Even Ser...
Kawhi Leonard Isn't Mad, He's Actually Laughing About Gregg Popovich's Dig
Raptors forward Kawhi Leonard, a man who has laughed at least eight times in his life, got in a good ninth chuckle on Sunday, when Spurs coach Gregg Popovich criticized his former player’s leadership abilities....
Dwane Casey Gets His Revenge On The Raptors
With 1.2 seconds remaining in regulation, José Calderón found Reggie Bullock five feet from the basket to hit the buzzer-beating shot that gave the Pistons a 106-104 win over the Raptors. It was Dwane Casey’s first game back in Toronto since the Raptors fired him at the end of last season, and he d...