It was a scene that we never like to see in sports, let alone an NBA Finals game. When one of the game's great players goes down with a devastating injury - as was the case last night when Kevin Durant, guarded by Serge Ibaka in the second quarter, lost his footing and immediately grabbed his right heel.
Undoubtedly one of the league's best players, Durant was playing in his first game since Game 5 of the Western Conference semi final, when he exited with what was termed a right calf strain. Up until the injury last night, he had scored 11 points in 12 minutes of the play, providing the emotional as well as on court boost that the Warriors needed, especially being down 3 games to 1.
But then, he went down. The classless cheers of Raptor fans were quickly shut down by their own players, and every one of Durant's teammates, and Warriors' fans alike, could sense that the situation was not good. As Durant was helped to the locker room by Andre Iguodala and Steph Curry, you got the sense that the Warriors were going to respond in one of two ways. Either it was going to deflate them and they would lose the series in five, or they were going to rally around one another, play off of emotion and send the series back to Oakland for one last hoorah at Orlacle Arena on Thursday night.
Fortunately for the Warriors, and unfortunately for the legion of Raptor fans, the latter occurred. Although the game wouldn't be complete without its share of drama.
With a 97-93 lead, the Raptors' Kawhi Leonard, who had struggled all game from field and was 5 for 18 shooting, went on a personal 10-0 run that put the Raptors in front by 6, 103-97, with 2:30 to go. A Nick Nurse timeout off of a defensive rebound led to the home team missing on their next possession, and a string of big plays from Iguodala, Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green - including a Thompson three off a beautiful pump fake on Leonard - put the Warriors up 106-103.
Following a Raptor make, Demarcus Cousins was called for an offensive foul - illegal screen - on Fred VanVleet with 15.7 seconds remaining. It was setting up for a photo finish. Perhaps Leonard would send the Warriors home just like he did in Game 7 vs the Philadelphia 76ers.
But the Warriors had other plans.
With Leonard receiving the ball at the top of the arc, he was immediately double teamed by Thompson and Iguodala, forcing Leonard to give the ball up. He swung it to the left side to VanVleet, who then made an extra pass to Kyle Lowry in the corner. Lowry rose up, and Green, who had done a great job denying Marc Gasol off an entry pass, quickly ran to the corner to contest Lowry's attempt, and ended up getting a piece of it as the shot hit the side of the backboard.
As the Warriors celebrated, you could see Curry mouth the words "let's go home" as he lepted in the air and high fived teammates.
Go home they will, for one last game at Oracle Arena on Thursday night. Will the Warriors feed off of their home crowd and their energy, or will the Raptors play with the sense of urgency they did in Games 3 and 4 in Oakland?
That remains to be seen. But what we did see on Monday night, was the Warriors' heart in the face of adversity.
The heart of a champion.
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