Kawhi Leonard, Kyle Lowry, Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka, Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet, Danny Green — these were the primary players that brought Toronto and Canada the first NBA championship. The Toronto Raptors defeated Golden State 4-2 to win the 2018-2019 NBA title.
The Raptors fell short of winning at home in Game 5 but went undefeated at Oracle Arena in Oakland: 3-0 in the playoffs and 1-0 in the regular season.
The Toronto Raptors had long droughts very late in the games they lost in Toronto: Game 2 and Game 5. Game 6 had several key baskets down the stretch. After losing the first 2 games to Milwaukee, the Raptors finish the playoffs with a 8-2 run.
Nick Nurse, who took over for Dwane Casey as the Raptors coach, won in his first year as a head coach. Nurse threw off the Dubs by introducing an old-school box-and-1 on defence.
Kawhi Leonard, the major pickup from San Antonio along with Danny Green for DeMar DeRozan, scored 732 points in the playoffs. Only Michael Jordan (759 in 1992) and LeBron James (748 in 2018) scored more in a single NBA playoffs run.
Leonard, the MVP of the NBA Finals, had 14 games with 30+ points — tied for 4th all time — 8 on the road.
Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri pulled off the Leonard trade and acquiring Gasol from Memphis. VanVleet was undrafted. The team had no lottery picks on the roster.
The championship parade is Monday.
Jurassic Park multiplied in the 2019 NBA playoffs. The gatherings spread mostly through Ontario but spread out to Halifax and Regina, among other places. Was proud of Windsor being one of those places. In the shadow of the United States, Windsor rose to the occasion to come out for the Raptors.
The lines to get into the Jurassic Park 1.0 outside Scotiabank Arena grew long. The fans proved to celebrate in style without excess.
Holy $%!t I'm singing the Canadian Anthem at Game 6 of the @NBA finals tomorrow night!! xoS #NBAFinals pic.twitter.com/LcEJVkFl8a
— Sarah McLachlan (@SarahMcLachlan) June 12, 2019
The NBA Finals gave Americans a chance to hear O Canada in a non-hockey environment. The NBA brought out The Tenors, Alessia Cara, Tenille Arts, Walk Off the Earth, and the Raptors crowd with Doug Tranquada in the first 5 games of the series.
You can check out the unique O Canada interpretations.
| Opponent | Rogers Sportsnet | TSN |
| Orlando | 1-1 (via Sportsnet One) | 3-0 |
| Philadelphia | 3-1 (1-1 on Sportsnet One) | 1-2 (1-0 on CTV) |
| Milwaukee | 2-1 | 2-1 |
| Golden State | 2-1 | 2-1 |
Rogers Sportsnet and TSN always seem happiest when things are equal. Both Canadian media outlets went 8-4 in the NBA playoffs. TSN might have had the tiebreaker since Bell Media got the series-clinching game. Rogers Sportsnet would have carried Game 7 if the game was needed.
Citytv and CTV2 jumped into the mess simsubbing the ABC feed during the playoffs. CTV took over for CTV2 for Game 6. The idea behind the simsubbing is that those watching ABC in Canada (on cable or satellite) would have to sit through the Canadian ads.
The Rogers Sportsnet pregame coverage included ESPN personalities, a bit of a surprise since ESPN partially owns TSN. Stephen A. Smith and Brian Windhorst carried SN microphones and were much less bombastic on the Canadian airwaves. That footage reminded me of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
The not-so-pretty history of NBA Canadian teams
The impact of Toronto playing in the NBA Finals
2019 Toronto Raptors NBA Finals preview
The ABC telecasts are actually ESPN on ABC broadcasts. I still thought ABC would bring some really solid coverage to the NBA Finals. I confess to not being impressed.
I got a chance to see the Rogers Sportsnet coverage of Game 5. You saw the players introductions and the excitement leading up to the game. ABC was in a long commercial breaks for those moments.
Their halftime coverage was slightly longer than what NBCSN does at halftime for the Stanley Cup playoffs.
In Game 2, ABC went into a break with We're an American Band by Grand Funk Railroad. That was not only jingoistic but also lame since the song is severely overplayed. Would have been funny if they played American Woman by the Canadian band Guess Who. The network could have balanced out with Takin' Care of Business by BTO.
ABC seemed to have orders to not mention Drake or the Superfan Nav Bhatia. Bhatia was on the ESPN cameras after Game 3 in Oakland but was in the background. The network did check in during the 4th quarter of Game 4 with the Jurassic Parks in Toronto, Mississauga, Halifax, and Regina. Halifax and Regina rarely get mentioned on over-the-air U.S. television.
Toronto Raptors take 'wrong bridge' to Oakland before Game 3 of NBA Finals https://t.co/KK93UK0ncQ pic.twitter.com/duNP9q6EXV
— CTV News (@CTVNews) June 6, 2019
The Toronto Raptors were undefeated in Oracle Arena, home of the Dubs in Oakland, in the regular season and the NBA Finals. The team posted a bridge photo shortly before Game 3 in Oakland.
The team had the most iconic bridge in the region: the Golden Gate Bridge. However, the San Francisco Bay Bridge takes you to Oakland.
Sometimes, Canadians get U.S. geography wrong. Americans know a lot less about Canadian geography.
Toronto Raptors make first trip ever to NBA finals and will play Golden State
Toronto Raptors advance to NBA Eastern Conference finals for first time since 2016
Toronto Raptors move on to Philadelphia in 2019 NBA playoffs second round
Justin Trudeau has been surprisingly absent from the Toronto Raptors successful run. The Canadian prime minister did make a friendly wager with U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi's 12th Congressional district is entirely within the city of San Francisco. Golden State, for the moment, plays in Oakland but will play in San Francisco in the fall.
The battle is over hometown delicacies: Ghirardelli chocolate, California wine, and a selection of almonds and walnuts vs. a basket of locally made goods from across Canada. Was hoping the Canadian basket would have had elk jerky and ketchup chips.
Trudeau would have a guarantee of receiving the winning basket by beating with Pelosi instead of the angry toddler, who would almost certainly renege on a bet.
2019 Toronto Raptors NBA playoffs preview
2019 Toronto Raptors NBA playoffs scoreboard
CanadianCrossing.com NBA coverage
Lots of great signs in Jurassic Park. Best one to your humble narrator: the only KD we care about is Kraft Dinner. Canadians call KD Kraft Dinner what Americans call Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. Really. KD in Golden State terms stood for Kevin Durant.
The obvious pun was Golden State player Kevon Looney since loonie is slang for the $1 Canadian coin. Didn't see that in a sign.
CanadianCrossing.com Canadian politics coverage
We note when provincial political ads run during Stanley Cup playoffs. If you've been watching the Canadian feeds during the finals, you've seen political ads for the fall federal election.
The Conservative Party of Canada bought ads. There were also ads from Unifour and Engage Canada that weren't tied to a party. Shaping Canada's Future ran anti-Trudeau ads.
Elections Canada allows third-party ads as long as there is no correlation between outside groups and political parties. Outside parties can only spend up to about $1 million nationally from June 30 to the election.
Toronto Raptors playoffs history
| 2019 | Golden State | 4-2 |
| 2019 | Milwaukee | 4-2 |
| 2019 | Philadelphia | 4-3 |
| 2019 | Orlando | 4-1 |
| 2018 | Cleveland | 0-4 |
| 2018 | Washington | 4-2 |
| 2017 | Cleveland | 0-4 |
| 2017 | Milwaukee | 4-2 |
| 2016 | Cleveland | 2-4 |
| 2016 | Miami | 4-3 |
| 2016 | Indiana | 4-3 |
| 2015 | Washington | 0-4 |
| 2014 | Brooklyn | 3-4 |
| 2008 | Orlando | 1-4 |
| 2007 | New Jersey | 2-4 |
| 2002 | Detroit | 2-3 |
| 2001 | Philadelphia | 3-4 |
| 2001 | New York | 3-2 |
| 2000 | New York | 0-3 |
photo credit: @Raptors; City of Regina
Twitter captures: @SarahMcLachlan; @CTVNews
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