The Toronto Raptors defeated the Golden State Warriors 114-110 Thursday night, winning their first NBA Finals championship title.
In a game that saw 14 lead changes and four ties in the first half, the Raptors were able to bring a championship to Canada on the backs of Kyle Lowry, the longest tenured Raptor, who had 26 points, as did Pascal Siakam.
Kawhi Leonard, who was named Finals MVP finished with 22 points.
The Warriors were playing with heavy hearts, three days after their two-time NBA Finals MVP Kevin Durant made his long-awaited return from a calf injury in Game 5, only to suffer a ruptured Achilles tendon. Things took a turn for the worst when Klay Thompson left the game with a torn ACL in the third quarter.
Prior to the injury, Thompson had recorded 30 points. Steph Curry finished with 21 points.
The Raptors went up by as much as nine in the opening quarter, and Lowry had already scored 15 points – including four threes. The Warriors sliced away at that lead behind some hot shooting by Thompson. Toronto took a slim 34-32 lead into the second.
Curry missed a 3-pointer with about 5 seconds left, the Raptors tacked on a free throw off a technical in the last second when the Warriors called a time-out they didn’t have, and the last game at Oracle Arena was the last game of Golden State’s reign.
