The Ringer NBA Show - Spicy P Heats Up to Take Game 1 | Heat Check

Episode Date: May 31, 2019

Pascal Siakam dominates Game 1 of the Finals, leading the Toronto Raptors to a solid victory over the Kevin Durant–less Golden State Warriors despite a poor shooting night from Kawhi Leonard. Host: John Gonzalez Guest: Dan Devine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Ringer podcast network. I'm Liz Kelly. Fresh off of Talk the Thrones, the Ringer is introducing a new live Twitter after show covering season two of HBO's Big Little Lies. Immediately after each episode, the Ringer's Amanda Dobbins and ESPN's Mina Kimes will be going live to give their initial reactions and break down everything we saw in the episode. And to kick us off, there will be a special season two preview airing on Friday, June 7th at 12 p.m. Pacific. So join Amanda and Mina for Big Little Live every Sunday on Twitter. Welcome to Heat Check. I'm your host, John Gonzalez, in Toronto, joined as I am every week by my producer, Isaac, Lee, back in L.A.

We've got instant game one reaction from the NBA finals, Isaac, the Toronto Raptors. T-DOT. They did it. They did it. It's all over. I think the Raptors in one. Championship congratulations. Now, it feels like that here in Toronto, and we're going to get into that.

And in just a second, Dan Devine is going to join us. Shortly, Dan has been out here in Toronto with me, and he'll be covering the series. through when it shifts to the Bay Area, but it really did feel like this momentous occasion in Toronto. Like it was a party citywide. It was a party at the game. Yeah, here's some like fireworks going off

in the background here. It sounds like a very festive environment in the city. It's very late over there. It is a festive environment and it is very late. But we're going to bring Dan in, but we wanted to mention that we're going

to have heat check after every game during the finals. So we're still going to have the mismatch and Corner 3 and group chat. But heat check will be on after every game with Dan and I. And then maybe COC when the series shifts to the Bay Area. But look for that in your feed. And also, of course, check out all of our stuff on the ringer.com.

But let's get right into it. What a hell of a game for the Toronto Raptors. Not such a great game for the Golden State Warriors. Let's bring in Dan Devine. All right. I'm joined by Dan Devine in my hotel room. Our hotel room, really. The ringer put us up basically in bunk beds.

We've been making forts out of the pillows. it's been a grand time. This is how we became best friends. It was pretty amazing. Best buddies just came off of game one. We saw the Toronto Raptors beat the Golden State Warriors 118-109. And you and I had very different experiences tonight from this game. But we're going to start out with yours and being in the arena, watching this game that was

really the Pascal Seacom game. We've seen during the playoffs, like early in the playoffs, Pascal Seacom was very good. And then there were moments against the Sixers where he was alternately good and then invisible. And now tonight we got really good. Pascal Seaccom again. Yeah, I mean, the last two rounds he'd really been taken out of his game. First, in Philly, it was switching Joel Embed on to him and, you know, making him someone who has to take open threes that he might not be so comfortable taking from, you know, above the break as opposed to the corners.

Kind of flustered his rhythm. You know, Embed's great at protecting the rim, so then Siakun would have to drive into him and eat up all the space. And it was sort of a tough matchup for him. Last round against Milwaukee, it's Janice out of Akumbo. And then they had Burke Lopez on him for the same kind of help off, protect the rim. rim kind of thing. So there was a question of like is how is he going to get his rhythm back? He's been fits and startsy for two rounds.

How's he going to get it back? Especially if they decide to put Draymond green on him because Draylon can do the same things. Sag off, protect the rim, muck everything up. And the answer was Seacom just drove the ball right down his throat. Yeah. Like every time he got a chance on the catch, when he had an open look, you know, he started to step into it with confidence.

And then when he got the ball with some space that he could drive into, he took the ball straight at the rim and quick attacks when he got at the ball on the post, quick attacks and transition. Everything he did, he was a missile straight at the basket, and the results were absolutely phenomenal. 32 points on 14 for 17 shooting. Yeah. If you have your number two option shooting 82% from the floor, pretty good, pretty good offensive

game. Well, this is what we talked about. You and I was sort of kicking around Toronto in these last couple of days. We're like, okay, well, you know essentially what you're going to get from Kauai, but with these supporting cast members, you really haven't had anything like approaching consistency. Right. Right. Like, they've all had, like, moments like Lowry's had a couple of games where he's been good. And then early in the playoffs, there was games when he wasn't.

Fred Van Fleet was horrendous. And then all of a sudden went Supernova and he couldn't miss a three against the bucks. And then, you know, again, Seacum, who, as you mentioned, 32 points on 17 shots, he makes 14 of them. He was just so efficient tonight. And he hit the boards. He played good defense. And on a night when, and I'm saying this in air quotes, not the best Kawhi Leonard night. Right. And still he ends up with. 23 points and gets to the line 12 times and like like for any other normal human would have been a good night. Right. And I think with Kauai too, the thing that you don't know, not that you're

looking for gray clouds inside of a silver lining after a game one win if you're Toronto, but Kawhi looked more hampered tonight than he did at the end of the Milwaukee series. And I think that's a maybe a little bit of a cause for concern, you know, is, you know, the leg issues that he's been having, have those sapped something from him overall. But the really, really heartening news is he's still drawing a ton of defensive attention. You know, at times it was, you know, the warriors throwing three bodies at him, you know, two off the catch and then one is a helper behind. And so

all of that attention is going to lead to open opportunities for his teammates. And he kept making those passes. A couple of sort of errant throws under duress in the first half, but generally, made the right pass, made the kickout, swing, find an open shot. And this is exactly what the Rathers have to have

if they're going to win this series. You need Mark Asol to confidently take those shots. You need Seacum to take those shots. And attack off the dribble to beat a close out. You need Danny Green to make some of those open corner threes that he's been getting all playoffs long. And so you get some of those shots to go down early. Everybody's confidence improves.

Everybody feels a little bit more like they've got a hold of the game. And then you get the sort of things cranked up on both ends. And, I mean, that was the story for the Raptors tonight. Even if Kauai isn't looking like the best player in the postseason as he has for the last, you know, several weeks, everybody else is capable of handling more. And, you know, you see what happens when Toronto gets those sorts of. of performances. Yeah, you mentioned Kauai, like when they was just sort of throwing everything at him and him being able to make the past and find the open guy and then like it brings confidence to the supporting cast.

KOC has made this point several times on the mismatch that Kauai isn't a great passer, but he's a good and willing passer. And when he's thinking that way, if they're going to, you know, blitz him and trap him and double them and just throw everything they can at him and he can find those open guys and those open guys do hit those shots, that's all the better for the Raptors. And you mentioned a couple of those guys, one of whom was Marc Asaw, who had 20 points and seven rebounds, and eventually fouled out. He got to the line six times and made all six. But he was willing to take those shots tonight. And I thought it was like a pretty good Marcus All game.

Like maybe one of the better ones we've seen in the playoffs. Absolutely. And I think the maybe even more encouraging, because we've seen him have nights in the playoffs where he is aggressive. He is looking to take those shots. It's not all the time because that's not generally how he's wired. He's always to make the extra pass guy. But we've seen him do that. I think the most encouraging thing, if you're,

Raptor's fan is defensively, he was excellent, and he was excellent in space. He was excellent being up on pick and rolls. When Steph Curry or Clay Thompson is coming around the screen off the catch, he's there with his hands up, plugging up passing lanes. He's moving his feet, busting up the rhythm of plays, not just getting dusted off the bounce. And if he's able to stay on the floor defensively, and not even to stay on the floor, but make an impact defensively in getting Golden State out of its rhythm, then it allows

him to stay on the court and be an offensive force when he's able to make those shots, make the extra passes from the high post, keep the ball moving around the perimeter. There were a lot of possessions tonight where the warriors were rotating well and the warriors were getting into passing lanes and making things tough on the raptors. But the more smart ball movers you have on the floor, the better your odds are of beating those rotations that the warriors make. And Gasol is such an important part of that for them. I believe it was after he came over at the trades end line.

They were up in the top three or four in assist rate. a stark difference from what the style of offense they played before he got there, the way that they can swing the ball and the way that everybody can sort of see the next pass, he elevates that so much. So if he's out there defending really well and taking the shots, everything else sort of seems to flow together. And when he's able to impact the game positively on both ends of the floor, Toronto's ceiling elevates to a really high level.

This felt like more of the Raptors team that we saw during the regular season, which was like, totally my thing was I felt like their depth was such a strength. I mean, you know, in the playoffs, your bench ends up getting shorter. Your rotations end up getting shorter. Unless you're the Warriors, in which case. Unless you're the Warriors. But there were times during the postseason, especially against the Sixers, where I thought,

oh, man, that strength that I thought was a strength. There's not a strength. And tonight it very much was. You mentioned all these contributions. Nurse went heavy with his starting five. Everybody played more than 30 minutes. Lowry played 36. And Leonard and Seaccom played more than 40 each.

But another guy that I want to mention is Fred Van Fleet who played 33 minutes and he hit another three ball, which this time was one of the most ridiculous series I've ever seen. It might have been more ridiculous than Kauai's game seven winner against the Sixers, the four bounce one. This one, he hoisted up. It was a two because they reviewed it and it was a two. But it bounced off the glass, rimmed around, looked like it was going to pop out and then somehow fell through. Fred Van Bleepback? Yeah, that was, I mean, the note that I took on that, I believe, was just like, if FVV hits that, not your night warriors, L.O.L.

And so, like, there's, I mean, it's crazy. And, you know, it is certainly the greatest argument for family planning and for ensuring that you are going to have your child in the middle of the postseason, because this has clearly kicked him into a new level. Whatever his slump was like before, have a new baby. And all of a sudden, you're going to make every shot you throw up. I think, what was he five of eight tonight? And what was good, really good with him is not just, obviously,

when you have the, you know, the gods smile upon you with some of the shots you make that are rolling in. He was really decisive off the catch two, and he was attacking downhill. So he had the, a lot of times in the sort of the beginning of the second quarter, beginning of the fourth quarter, he's on the floor against those DeMarcus cousins lineups, against the bench lineups where there's maybe some questions about how are they going to defend in space, how are they going to be able to handle the smaller guards and the quicker guards? and he went right at Boogie. He went right at the rim, finishing through contact,

getting into the paint and kicking out, really just strong backup point guard play. And this is the guy he was all of last year, on the way to becoming a six man of the year finalist, and then this year has had some more ups and downs. But we mentioned this. So, like, if you're getting the A games of these sort of complementary pieces,

it makes everything else easier and it puts so much more pressure on Golden State, which without Kevin Durant is finding itself sort of in the crunch of not really having quite as many answers as they normally do. Yeah, Van Fleet plus 11 tonight, another good game for him. Our guy, Shea Serrano tweeted out that his baby was going to be finals MVP. So the baby got a lot of love. You and I did not get as much love.

Yeah, not. What did he tweet out? You told me he said he tweeted that he saw the video of the you and I did pregame. And you were wearing a very nice suit. And I had on one of my finest sweater cardigan vests. which had beautiful elbow patches on it, and I got a substitute teacher. Yeah, here's what this jerk said.

He said, this new sitcom about a substitute teacher and a personal injury lawyer looks good, is what She said about me and you. And it would have been a buddy cop crime drama, first of all. First of all. First of all. And frankly, I was a little bit insulted because the last time She made fun of a picture of me,

he called me a teacher and said that I looked like the kind of teacher that would try to teach you that Shakespeare was the first rapper. So now I'm not even a teacher anymore. Now I'm a personal injury lawyer. I'm like Jimmy McGill over here, scraping by. Although that's not bad. Better call us all is pretty great.

All right. So let's talk about the Golden State Warriors. The Raptors, obviously was their night. It was Toronto's night. And I want to talk about Toronto the city in just a second. But Golden State Warriors completely panicked, right? They're going to get swapped and they're going to, they've never been in a situation like this. They're terrified.

Yeah, it's all over. This is, I think the number maybe from ESPN stats and info that was this is the fifth time under Kerr that they've trailed in a series and they've won the first four. So, I mean, it's, yeah, not exactly panic time. But there are definitely reasons for concern. You know, you get max minutes from Steph and Clay and Draymond, you know, 40 apiece or 39 for Clay. And most of the lion's share of their production coming from those guys, 34 for Steph. And a lot of that was like sort of hard engine room work, especially in the second half. You kind of got the feeling like he sensed or he understood how much he had to generate.

So he's going to the line. He's hunting contact. And that leads to some of those weird, like, pull up off the screen and then like shove your body. into the guy and hope for a foul call to get into the line because you just need the points that any way you can get them in part because Toronto was doing a great job of keeping the Warriors out of transition, getting back and really limiting their easy looks. And so then everything gets harder. And this again, you know, not to harp too much on the Durant thing, but like this is where somebody else who can create an easy shot is so valuable. Because a lot of times with Steph and Clay,

you feel the sweat of labor in it. There's so much running off off ball screens. Everybody else has to be in tune and, you know, bumping the guy off the cutter and all those sorts of things to create space for them. And that makes everything hard. Everything is much more congested. So if you're not finding other areas for easy buckets, that defense is really good over there. And that can lock in, they can take away some of your pet things and the things you like to do. And the result is if you're not getting sort of like magic stuff games, it could be some tough sledding. Even with that said, though, you know, there was a really good stuff game. It was a really to get to the line 14 times. You made all 14. Well, that's the thing. I saw somebody,

I've seen some people sort of saying, you don't be able to take a quiet 34. I was like, I don't know, man. It felt watching him to me like he was sort of ever present with it. It was a rough start. I think he was three for his first 10. But he just kept coming and kept coming and kept coming and kept putting pressure on the defense. As did they, as did the Warriors, like, so my assignment, a little bit different than years, I was out with the maniacs in Jurassic Park.

And they wanted to get super rowdy, right? Like the Van Fleet, two ball that banked off the glass. Like they wanted to get moving or a damn. Green corner three. And every time you felt like they were really gaining that momentum where it was like they were putting this game away. It was completely over. Steph would hit a shot and quiet everybody down.

Or Iggy would make a steal and get a breakaway layup. And it was like it felt like the Warriors did that we're still coming thing pretty much almost to the very end of the game. And that's why like I felt like I don't know how it was in the arena, but outside among like the crowd, it felt tense for a game that they controlled almost. the whole way. Yeah, I think that's right. And I think that because there were, there were definitely moments where the Raptors were one shot away from losing the lead, you know, throughout most of the first half, it sort of felt like they should be up by more. And then they go into half up double digits,

but you sort of forget, like the warriors aren't playing all that well and they're still with inhaling distance here. They're maybe two or three shots away. It was 90, 87 after cousins split a pair of free throws about two or three minutes into the fourth quarter. And then the, the offense just completely stalled out. And they didn't, they did not get another point until the, 8-11 mark, and at that point they're down 10. So it's like there were a couple of opportunities where they really could have cut it down, pushed it, and then they just sort of spread it out offensively. But a lot of that is credit to the Raptors.

You know, when they needed to crank things up defensively, they were able to do it. When they needed to get out on a run, they were able to do that. The transition game really favored them. I didn't think the Warriors were like especially sloppy in Carroll's with the ball, but 17 turnovers doesn't lie. You know, Steve Kerr said after the game, like, basically our transition defense sucked, and we threw the ball away. And like, that's the game.

you can't do that against a team this good. And the reality is like the Raptors are this good. It's not just that they got like 99th percentile performances from a lot of their guys. It's like there's a lot of guys who can perform like that. So the Warriors, their problem has always been, you know, the easiest way for them to lose is for them to beat themselves. And they certainly didn't do themselves any favors tonight, but Toronto deserved that win. Toronto earned that. It wasn't that the Warriors gave it to them.

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If you're the Warriors, like, on a night when maybe, okay, fine, like, maybe it wasn't like a supernova stuff game, but it was still a good stuff game. But they had some problems scoring otherwise. And like you said, they didn't take care of the ball. It wasn't particularly like their best performance, the sharpest performance. and yet there were moments when it looked like you were going to climb back into the game

and you only lose by nine on the road. There are some encouraging signs here. I mean, Jamline had a triple double. Like out of nowhere. I think the thing that would worry me most, we don't want to speculate too much I want to look like,

but the fact that Andre Aguadala came up kind of limp in at the end of the game, it looked like there was something up with his hamstring right away as soon as he landed, I forget the exact time stamp of it, but he came down and right away he knew and he was like, you could seem grimacing,

like, you know, looking uncomfortable, and they sent him. And, you know, I think Alfonso McKinney goes into the game with like a minute and a half left on a defensive possession because I Goda needed a second. And so after the game, Kerr says, you know, I think he's fine. Well, you know, you know, take a look at it tomorrow. Iguidal is said after the game, you know, I'll be fine. Like, I'm not missing game two. But if he's limited, he's A, your number one primary defender on Kauai Leonard.

And B, he's a guy that, you know, we talked about those sort of swings and those opportunities where it's like you get him the shot in the corner. And some of the, like, he had a few of those tonight where he gets, you know, all the attention that Steph is drawing on the other side of the floor or Clay is. Clay is drawing on the other side of the floor, ball swings to him in the corner. He's got to make some of those, just like Danny Green had to make him for Toronto to build their lead. He's got to make those to knock down the lead or to sort of deflate Toronto. He didn't get those to go tonight. And if he's hampered, if he's limited, even maybe harder for him to get those down while

also having a harder time to guard in Kauai. And then we talk about sort of the Warriors as a strengthened numbers team. You know, they played 11 or 12 guys tonight. It's insane. But, I mean, how much quality is there in that depth at the highest level. Like, if he can't go, then you need, like, an A-plus game from Alfonso McKinney. Yeah. Sean Livingston?

Yeah, you need much more out of Sean Livingston. You need much more out of Jonas Jerebko. Like, there's not a lot of really attractive answers for, like, who now goes in and guards Kauai Leonard. Like, a Warriors team that sort of was built on wing depth for so long. Now, like, that's really creaky. So if there's any issues with Iguodala's legs and with how he responds tomorrow, that could be a big concern. And, you know, then you could be staring down the barrel of O2. They do have two days in between.

Yeah, there's time. Tomorrow, no practice at all. That's tomorrow where certain people are. Right, yeah, we don't know when you're listening to it. So that's Friday, no practice. And then Saturday, they'll have practice, but it'll be light. Right. And then Sunday is the game.

So they do have a little bit of time there. But you mentioned that they played 11 guys. The Warriors played 11 guys. Dreb Cohen McKinney and Cook each played eight or nine minutes. Sean Livingston had to go out there for 18 Kavanaugh. he got his usual allotment of 28. The other guy who played tonight was a guy, I was surprised.

I saw a Woj bomb, push alert that said, Boogie was back and that they were going to run Boogie out there. And he played eight minutes, and I thought he looked rusty, stiff, not like himself. Like, it didn't seem like he had a lot of lift. I was actually kind of surprised that he came back. Yeah, I think part of that is just the, you know,

this is, it's easy to forget because we've been watching him for so long. This is his first postseason, you know? He had, he had got. in all of one full postseason game before he got injured. And this is his chance to be in the finals. It's his chance to compete. And so I think that was a big and important deal for him to, as soon as you can get back on the floor, you want to do that. The fact that he only played eight minutes was only in those sort of early, you know, quick stints in the, mostly in the beginning of the second and beginning of fourth quarter and was of questionable value. There,

like, there was that tradeoff of how much is he giving you on offense versus how much is he a liability on defense, especially as he sort of knocks off the right. trust and gets back to form. And he made some great passes. I know there was a couple of times where he got like Fred Van Vleet switched on to him and just like sort of smushed him down into the lane to get to the free throw line. Things like that, you know, where that was the idea like I have this big guy to punish switches and to be able to create more offense during your sort of fallow periods.

But yeah, he looked, you know, steps slow. I had quick hands, a couple of like, you know, deflections and steals and stuff like that. But steps slow on defense, they attacked and they felt pretty comfortable with it. I don't think those minutes were wide golds. they lost the game. Oh, no, no, no. But what you're hoping for by re-injecting a player of that caliber into your offense is not just, like, can we stay even in those minutes? You need those to be impact minutes.

Right. And they didn't get that tonight. Yeah, it's, uh, look, it wasn't one of the Warriors best games. But as you mentioned, uh, they've been behind before and they generally find a way to win because of the Warriors. And it's like kind of frustrating, although I'm hoping that it won't be an inevitability this year. I would like to see a fun and exciting series that goes, you know, beyond just the Warriors, stomping the Raptors after this first game. Certainly Toronto would like that to happen because I'm not sure if you guys heard any of that on the audio recording here, but they're setting off fireworks.

Yes. People have been very excited in Toronto. And as I said, I was out in Jurassic Park. And it was like blocks upon blocks that was shut down. Like Jurassic Park was at capacity, but then the overflow was at capacity. And that entire street, Bremner, that runs from Scotia Bank Arena along the river parallel to the river or the lake, rather, all the way down to the Rogers center. It was packed with people. And they had video screens up and like, you and I, I have been here for a couple days, and we have been out in the town and we were talking to people and they're really enjoying this. Totally. I mean, and it's really with no disrespect to the people of Cleveland or Cavaliers fans, I think there's something sort of infectious about seeing,

being a new fan base, getting the opportunity, you know, getting like first time in the 24-year history of the Raptors that they've made it this far. There's fans who they know, we were talking to people and they were like, literally my whole life has been, you know, I'm a fan of this team and I haven't seem to make it this far. So there's that sense of really sort of like appreciation for what has already been accomplished and a sense that why should we stop now? It's time to get greedy. It's time to believe. And I think that's the thing. You know, Clay Thompson mentioned this. Steve Kerr mentioned this. There's a sense that because they only played twice during the regular season, both those meetings came by, I think before Christmas. So like the way the teams look now is

very different from the way they looked when they played and they were guys in and out of the lineup. You know, Kauai only played one game. Steph only played one games, yada, yada, yada. Both Kerr, and Clay said, we don't really know this team. We know it was something, you know, we don't have a whole lot of familiarity with the Raptors. Well, I think they better get familiar pretty quick because this is what the Raptors can do. They can be this good on defense. And if they get this kind of performance from Seacum, it unlocks everything else for

everybody else and a different kind of offensive attack for them. And maybe you get OG back. Like, you don't know. Well, there's, yeah. I mean, OG An Anobie, who is a player that he's a valuable piece of when they want to go get small. There was a, something I wrote in the preview and I forget the exact number of possessions now, but something like 400 or so possessions this year where they played with Seacum at center.

And it's like the smallest they can get Toronto. And while still having like offensive component and the ability to have multiple guys that can switch. And more than half of those possessions came with Ananoi at the four. So he's a guy like because he's 6, 8, 2.30, tough, strong, can defend every position, can rebound the ball, can get out in transition. Like he opens the door for them being able to get as small as they want to because he kind of lets them be big and small at the same time. He hasn't played at all in the postseason,

had an emergency appendectomy right before the start of the playoffs. And now it's like the original expectation was maybe he'd be ready in the middle of the series. And I think now the expectation is that he might be active for game two. So how much you can expect, same thing with Boogie, right? How much you can expect from somebody after six or seven weeks on the shelf remains to be seen. But if the way the series is tilting, Iguidal is, you know, limited or hampered in any way and there's less depth on Golden State. And Toronto's only going to get deeper.

I mean, things can get awfully. interesting here. The vibe in the city about like the way that the whole playoffs have gone, you know, like there's been so many moments where I counted the Raptors out certainly and then they like rise from the dead. Well, that's because you're a hater. I, right. I despise all. Toronto is a lovely place. Don't do that to me because the people of Toronto are really wonderful. Everyone's been incredibly cool and very nice to us. We met many people. Shouts to Brandon, who we talked to today in the park. Oh, and shouts to, uh, was it, Lance and Norma. Yes. Who we saw a dinner last We saw at dinner.

They were sitting next to us. Big fans of the Ringer and... They recognize you by your voice from the Tulsa Tones. But they're not from Toronto. They're Warriors fans. So I think that they're probably less excited by this than everybody else. Maybe the shout out brings... Lift your spirits.

Lifts their spirits. But like that vibe, like not... Generally, I tend to be pretty cynical when it comes to sports and outcomes and like... Covering sports kind of beats the fandom out of you. Sure. But there are moments in like when Cleveland, when the Cavaliers broke through... after 50 years of not winning any titles across all sports. Like that was a fun moment.

When the Eagles beat, what's that team in New England? Oh, right, they beat the Patriots. And it was like a glorious moment because they had never won a Super Bowl. And it was like this point of civic pride. And like, it feels similar here in Toronto, right? I don't know that they'll go on and win a title. But just for them to get this far and then to take this first game, there's like really, and there's more fireworks going off.

And it's just like, it's very late. here and people are having a great time. So good for Toronto. They take game one. I'd like to see them make it a series and continue it. But for right now, it feels like they're really enjoying themselves. Absolutely. And I think, so right now it's, yeah, there's that feeling of they're enjoying themselves and maybe it's like playing with house money a little bit. People didn't expect we would get this far and here we are. But they take game two and they go up to O? That's a conversation. That's like the narrative shifts. Now Golden State has pressure on it. What happens with Durant? Is he going to be able to come back? You know, what do they do if they can't get to?

Durant back and they still can't get anybody else going offensively besides Steph. And, you know, Clay is sort of trick-or-treat with the shot and all those sorts of things. There's suddenly become a lot of questions. And the interesting shift there will be, it'll be fun if Toronto makes it a series when that starts shifting to, wait, are the warriors really in trouble here? I wonder how quickly that starts. Now, I mean, you know, momentum's only as good as tomorrow start and pitcher, right? That's the idea. So we'll see, you know, it may be with four quarters of experience of how Toronto guarded them and what they were able to do offensively to get out in transition.

Golden State comes back with a better game plan, a little sharper, a little tighter handle, not throwing the ball away, that kind of stuff in game two. Maybe it's a different story and they sort of get the split that many of us projected they would get. But for right now, I think, you know, if you're Toronto coming out of this game, you did what you were supposed to do, and not only did that, but you sort of made your presence felt in the series. And I think it's only going to get louder, it's only going to get more rock because it's only going to get more excited because now fans know the Raptors can do that. If they go up to all the tall boys in Poutine and all of Toronto, They'll be so excited. They're going to celebrate their heads off.

This is good. This was fun. I'm going to see you for the rest of the series. We're going to continue to do this. It's like you have to go right. I have to go right. So let's go right. Dan Devine, you killed it. We will be back with Dan in the future. Dan, thank you. Thank you. All right. We thank Dan Devine. We thank you for listening. Please rate and review us on Apple Podcast. Make sure to read all of our NBA finals content on the ringer.com. Check out the mismatch. Check out Corner 3 and group chat in your Ringer NBA show feed. Thank you again to Dan. He and I will be back shortly. Isaac will be back. We're all going to be back. Thanks for listening everybody. Bye.