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TORONTO – Historically, the Raptors have played hard against the Golden State Warriors, despite the mixed results.
The two defending NBA champions are the winners of eight consecutive games with Toronto, although five of the last six have been decided by six points or less.
Can the Raptors finally overcome the bump?
The two teams will meet several times over the next two weeks. The first meeting will be held Thursday at Scotiabank Arena (live on TSN4 at 8pm). -November.
At 18-4, the Raptors enter Thursday's competition with the best record in the NBA. Despite injuries and troubles early in the season, the Warriors are still the gold standard in basketball. The match will be televised in the United States on TNT in the United States and, as if more were needed, people talk about it as a possible confrontation for the finals, including one of the players presented.
"Now [the Raptors] are the best [team in the East] and I'm waiting for them to be there probably all season, "Warriors Guard said. Klay Thompson to reporters after the team's victory win against Orlando on Monday. "They have a lot of length. They have so many two-way players. Obviously kawhi [Leonard] is back and playing at a MVP level. Kyle Lowry is a great leader and a bulldog. So, it's going to be a good test for us. Who knows, this could be a preview of June. They have something really special in Canada right now. "
As hunters, you can understand why the Raptors would take a different approach before this week's showdown. They took care not to fan the fire, but they do not throw water on it either. They adhere to the hype, even if they are not quite willing to follow their example and subscribe to Thompson's claim that they are the favorites to get out of the East.
"It's nice of him to say that," keeps Raptors Fred VanVleet said after his team's optional practice on Wednesday afternoon "Obviously, I respect the band a lot and Klay is probably one of the most deadly guys in the league. So it's funny that such bloody guys in the field make good comments. But who knows? We have a lot of work to do. They are established as champions and it is our duty to eliminate them, but we still have a lot of work to do there. "
"We go there to measure ourselves. Obviously, it is one of the best NBA teams. We feel like a high level team. They are obviously a high level team for several years. We will see how the game is going. "
Their humility is not without cause, but their self-confidence is not without foundation. Record and early season success aside, the Raptors have never been so well equipped to compete and maybe even beat Golden State.
The Warriors have become the archetype of the modern basketball team. It's virtually impossible to replicate the way they were built – we may never see a team with so many star on a list – but the challenge for 29 other NBA clubs has been to try to To imitate their style of play.
"People are trying to do what they do, but nobody does them like them," said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse. "They always crush you with this 30 feet, then another. They do. That spirit that takes you away, the discouragement of playing so loudly and so well, and you turn around and they throw another 30 feet. You can see all the teams shaking their heads as if they had just been punched and they are trying to stay in the fight. "
At a minimum, the high octane style of the Warriors was a motivational factor and a factor taken into account by Raptors President Masai Ujiri during the rebuilding of his team during the summer. . DeMar DeRozan – a mid-range scorer and a limited defender – with a traditional center Jakob Poeltl for two versatile wings that contribute to both ends and have always fought against the Warriors in the West.
In Danny Green, the Raptors have a player they feel good about badigning to keep half of the four big Golden State players, Steph Curry, Thompson, Kevin Durant and Draymond Green. In Leonard, they have one of the best perimeter blockers in the league, who can defend all four reliably.
"The most important thing is this: you must have the bodies to protect them," Nurse said. "I'm not saying that you have to have someone who can look at Kevin Durant in the eyes, but you can not look at it in the navel either. You have to have some size on some of these guys or they shoot you and it does not matter that you keep them well, they do not even see you there. "
Raptors have a defensive size and versatility in all positions. They also have the ability to shoot in theory to track Golden State's firepower. But the biggest difference between this team of Raptors and those who knock on the door of the Warriors without ever breaking is their best player.
Thompson's praise for the Raptors may have played the game. But it's not hard to believe he sees them as a near-legitimate threat. That's the respect that superstars like Leonard command, and that's the type of player you need in your list to have a real chance of defeating the Warriors.
Of course, despite the hype, we can only shoot a lot of Thursday's game, regardless of the performance of the Raptors.
First of all, visitors are unlikely to be at full capacity. Green has a problem with his feet and should not play in Toronto. Curry has stepped up his fieldwork and is about to return from his groin injury, but it seems at best debatable.
In their absence, and after his departure with Green, Durant put the team on his shoulders and pushed his game to another level. After losing four games, the Warriors have won three consecutive times, Durant totaling 125 points on these outings, including consecutive performances of more than 40 points.
For the first time since the addition of Durant to their trio of stars in the summer of 2016, the Warriors seem a little vulnerable. Are they just bored or are they quarreling and are they good, even if they do not look like warriors, 15-7 start of the season the beginning of the end of this Golden State dynasty , with Durant and Thompson becoming a free agency this summer? If nothing else, it offers a glimmer of hope for the rest of the league.
Until proven otherwise, the Warriors are the team to beat. This is the team against which the Raptors, or any other potential competitor, should compete.
The Raptors still have a long way to go before they even think of seeing Golden State, or anyone else, in the final. However, if they start to close the gap, a win on Thursday would be a good starting point.
"I think there's a little more buzz and juice in the game," acknowledged the nurse. "These guys are walking a bit, people are telling them well before last night's match how big the game is on Thursday, they're getting it, they're feeling it."
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