It’s been a long time coming and now they are bound in the biggest stage of basketball – the NBA Finals.
The Toronto Raptors won their first ever Eastern Conference Finals Title and is going to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history after closing out the number one seed Milwaukee Bucks in Game 6, 100-94 on Saturday night.
After going down 0-2, they swept the next four games including a win on the road in Game 5 at Milwaukee. They were led by Kawhi Leonard in this year’s run, the first year Raptor player who was acquired from the San Antonio Spurs in a blockbuster trade last summer involving Demar DeRozan.
Leonard scored the game high 27 points on top of his playoff career high 17 rebounds and 7 assists. Pascal Siakam added 18 points and 4 rebounds. Kyle Lowry chipped in another 17 points and 5 boards while Fred VanVleet finished with 14 markers.
This is going to be Kawhi’s third finals appearance after winning the title in 2014 with the Spurs.
Milwaukee crashes out of championship contention for another year, although this year they got the best record of 60 wins and being home to one of the best players in Giannis Antetokounmpo who is also making his case to be 2019’s Most Valuable Player. He finished Game 6 with 21 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists. Five other Bucks players scored in double figures – Brook Lopez (18 points), Khris Middleton (14 points), Ersan Ilyasova (13 points), Malcolm Brogdon and George Hill (10 points apiecand but wasn’t enough to force a deciding Game 7.
Toronto will face and host the defending champions Golden State Warriors in the Finals and which commences on Thursday, May 30.
