The Toronto Raptors have punched their ticket to their first ever NBA Finals, but what must they do to beat the Golden State Warriors now?
Slowly but surely, the Toronto Raptors have emerged as the little engine that could.
Now, some may see that as an overstatement for a team that chugged it’s way to a 58-win season, but the Raptors had some major questions to answer throughout the duration of the regular season.
Does Kawhi Leonard even want to play in Toronto? Will Nick Nurse even make a difference? Will Kyle Lowry show up? And last but not least, can the Raptors be trusted?
The dis-affectionately titled baby dinosaurs aren’t babies anymore, and after a year and three playoff series of growing pains, these are the mature, dangerous and threatening Tyrannosaurus Rex’s from Jurassic Park.
In their way is a dynasty, fresh off of sweeping their opponents in the Western Conference Finals without their best player (and arguably the best player in the league), while being down for the majority of the series.
The Golden State Warriors are as vulnerable as they are ever going to be, heading into the 2019 NBA Finals with injuries to two of their focal points and facing an offseason of uncertainty.
To make matters worse for the defending champs, the Toronto Raptors introduce a multitude of matchup problems for the Warriors that other teams simply did not throughout their trek to the championship series.
Whether pundits like to admit it or not, the Raptors may present the toughest challenge the Warriors have come across in their five-year stretch of dominance, and if they can successfully fulfill the five keys ahead, the world may be run by dinosaurs once again.