So close.
It is my belief that the Golden State Warriors got lost on the way to the arena on Friday night to face the Toronto Raptors. That makes sense, because the Raptors are playing in Tampa, 1,336 miles away from their normal arena. I think the Warriors were just confused.
That’s the only explanation for what just transpired in front of my eyes, which are suddenly in need of some TLC. Might just put on a seven-hour YouTube video of puppies playing with their tails until my eyes feel back to normal.
Golden State had neither Steph Curry nor Draymond Green, but will get no sympathy from an 18-30 Raptors team that has dealt with injuries, coronavirus cases, and an entire season on the road, and was missing Kyle Lowry as well.
For the first quarter, the Dubs looked like a team that deserved to be playing NBA basketball, and only trailed by a single point.
Then Toronto went on a 20-1 run, and when the Warriors finally stopped the bleeding it was because they put a post-it note on a severed limb, and half a second later the bleeding continued on.
Over the second and third quarters, the Raptors outscored the Warriors 81-30.
I’m going to say that again.
Over the second and third quarters, the Raptors outscored the Warriors 81-30.
At one point the lead was in excess of 60.
The garbage-time crew — led by Alen Smailagić’s 6 points on 77.3% true-shooting — did some damage control to make it a neat and tidy 53-point deficit when the buzzer sounded. Almost enough to make you believe.
Golden State shot 32.9% from the field. They had three scorers in double figures — 15 for Andrew Wiggins, and 10 each for Jordan Poole and Nico Mannion. They had more turnovers (21) than assists (18). Their starters shot 15-for-46.
They lost 130-77.
Almost had ‘em.
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