Golden State Warriors: Top 3 storylines and NBA Finals preview/prediction
By Justin Fried
The Golden State Warriors are now just four wins away from their third straight NBA Finals victory. Here is a preview of everything to come in the 2019 NBA Finals.
Everything that we’ve seen in the 2018-19 NBA season so far has led up to this moment. All of the celebrated triumphs, heartbreaking defeats, and enthralling storylines have given us our NBA Finals matchup. The Golden State Warriors are set to take on the Toronto Raptors — and the stories of these two teams could not be any more different.
On one side you have the proverbial “evil dynasty” of the NBA. The Warriors are the greatest basketball dynasty of the 21st century and arguably one of the greatest of all time. They are set to take part in their fifth straight NBA Finals and will be looking to secure the illustrious three-peat with another series victory.
On the other hand, the Raptors are new to the NBA Finals scene. So new, in fact, that this will be their first finals appearance in franchise history. They don’t have the star-studded starting lineup that the Warriors do — when healthy that is.
Instead, they have relied on one man to get them to this point. A man who continues to redefine his legacy with each passing incredible postseason performance.
That man is Kawhi Leonard.
The Leonard-led Raptors will be taking on a Warriors team fresh off a clean sweep of the Portland Trail Blazers in the Western Conference Finals. By the time the series kicks off on Thursday, the Warriors would have gone a full 10 days since their last game and a whopping 24 days since their last defeat at the hands of the Houston Rockets in Game 4 of the Western Conference semi-finals.
It will be a battle of the esteemed Warriors looking to further cement their legacy and the upstart Raptors looking to forge a legacy of their own. Let’s briefly run through some of the key storylines to follow ahead of Thursday’s series kickoff.
1. Who’s Stopping Kawhi Leonard?
After going down 2-0 to the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals, all hope appeared to be lost for a Raptors team that once looked so promising.
And then Kawhi Leonard happened.
Leonard was virtually unstoppable which is ironic because of how ‘stoppable’ he made his opposition. After averaging 27 points in Milwaukee’s first two games (both team victories) Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo was unable to reach that mark again over the subsequent four games failing to score more than 25 in any contest past that point.
On the contrary, Leonard averaged a whopping 30 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 4.3 assists throughout the series including an incredible 27/17/7 performance in the team’s series-clinching Game 6 victory. He was equally as proficient at scoring as he was at preventing the other team from scoring and was essentially the reason for Toronto’s miraculous series comeback.
Now the question remains, how will the Warriors slow him down?
With Kevin Durant likely out for at least the start of the series — more on that later — the Warriors will likely have to lean on their backcourt to do much of the scoring. The duo of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson combined to score nearly 57 per game against the Trail Blazers and they will need to put up similar numbers to keep pace with the Raptors.
Expect the Warriors to ask 2015 NBA Finals MVP Andre Iguodala to guard Leonard on defense for the most part. Iguodala’s defense in the 2015 finals helped the Warriors limit LeBron James and secure the team’s first NBA Championship since 1975.
Perhaps he could do the same four years later.