The Toronto Raptors have the best home record in the NBA.
The Golden State Warriors landed in Canada at 3 a.m. and were playing the back end of a back-to-back.
This never should have happened. But, somehow, this did happen.
This was an 81-point first half outburst by Golden State that led to a 27-point halftime lead following by a stunning collapse that allowed the Raptors to creep within one point before chaos.ensued and the Warriors walked away from Toronto with a 127-125 win.
Saturday evening’s affair featured a little of everything: Two Steph Curry missed free throws in the final minute, a loose ball tie-up in the game’s final 10 seconds, and a second loose ball that required video replay to settle a possession debate. By avoiding an epic loss, Golden State prevented Toronto from notching the biggest comeback win in the NBA this season.
After thoroughly outplaying the Raptors in a marvelous display of what the Warriors look like when they’re at their best, Golden State followed one of its most impressive efforts of the year with a flop of a half that enraged head coach Steve Kerr, who picked up a technical foul at a critical juncture midway through the fourth quarter that allowed Toronto to cut the Warrior lead to 113-109.
Eventually, Kevin Durant’s hand-in-the-face defense on DeMar DeRozan helped contribute to a miss inside of 45 seconds and a Durant jumper with 21 seconds left pushed Golden State ahead by three.
The 81 first half points were the most the Warriors have scored on the road since they dropped 87 on the Denver Nuggets on November 2, 1990.
With Curry back in action but hampered by foul trouble in the first half, Durant, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green proved exactly why Golden State has a legitimate shot to become the first team to send four players to the NBA All-Star game in back-to-back seasons. Though Curry contributed just six first half points, Thompson went off for 20, Durant contributed with 15 and Green added 12 en route to posting an other-worldly +33 plus-minus. In its best half of the season, Golden State hit on 32-of-45 field goal attempts and turned the ball over just once.
Perhaps that’s how the Warriors withstood a 25-point first half effort from Raptors’ star DeMar DeRozan, who tormented Golden State but barely put a dent in the 27-point halftime advantage Steve Kerr’s squad built up. Though DeRozan was without his backcourt sidekick Kyle Lowry, Toronto is still one of the most formidable opponents in the NBA, the Warriors played a hard-fought contest against a tough Milwaukee team that ended 23 hours before Saturday’s tipoff, and Golden State was hampered by Curry’s limited time on the floor. With so many factors seemingly working against them, the Warriors simply rose to the occasion, and wiped the Raptors off the floor like they were dinosaurs being wiped off the earth.
Of course, any story about dinosaurs involves a bit of destruction, and Toronto proved it was up for the challenge in the second half.
As the Warriors know better than any team, in the NBA, every team makes a run. Following a flat start to the third quarter for Golden State that featured a 10-0 Toronto run, the Raptors cut the deficit down to nine points and had a chance to pull off one of the most stunning comebacks of the regular season.
However, back-to-back Durant three-pointers late in the quarter helped Golden State regain its offensive rhythm, and by the end of the third, a pair of Curry free throws helped the Warriors extend their edge back to 19 points. Durant’s attack from beyond the arc provided a steadying lift for a Warriors team that committed just seven fouls during the entire first half before racking up 10 fouls in the first eight minutes of the third quarter.
Though Kerr likely would have preferred to rest his starts before traveling to Cleveland for a much-anticipated Monday showdown with the Cavaliers, Toronto whittled Golden State’s lead down to just one point on two occasions, and even had an opportunity to take the lead. By coming out on top in a bizarre final minute, the Warriors became just the third team to beat the Raptors at home this season.
