Toronto Raptors Survive Steph Curry’s Comeback, Beat Golden State, 121-113

Toronto Raptors survived Steph Curry’s comeback, squeezing out a tough win over the Golden State Warriors, 121-113. It was a nail-biting game in which the home team had a chance to win, but that was blown out by Damion Lee, who had a horrifying sequence in the closing minute of the game.

At first, the Warriors’ guard missed two free throws with 25.8 seconds to go, and with the Raptors leading 117-113. After that, the hosts got the offensive rebound, and the ball went to Lee again, but he missed a three-pointer. Following all this, he would make a clear path foul, practically handing the Raptors a win, as Norman Powell sunk both of his free throws extending Toronto’s lead to six points, 119-113. Until the end of the match, Lee made another foul on Powell, who again hit both his FTs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5luPyLRffM

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Toronto’s first option in the attack wasn’t playing the way everybody expected, and it seems that the Warriors did find a solution on how to stop him. Siakam was 5-for-17 from the field and missed all of his seven shots from downtown. However, he did hit a floater with 45.7 seconds to go to pull away the guests to a two-possession game. He had a chance to make and-one free throw but missed it. Eventually, the MOP piled up 17 points and five assists and dimes each.

Norman Powell, however, took matters in his hands and dropped 37 points, hitting 13 of his 20 shots from the field and adding four threes. Kyle Lowry was right behind with 26 and 10 assists, making all 10 free throws he had. Serge Ibaka was back, posting a double-double with 13 points and rebounds both.

Apart from one sequence in the second quarter, when Toronto led 54-40, the entire game was pretty close, with the Warriors showing totally different face than during the majority of the season. It seems that Steph’s comeback made them more confident, but also, Curry himself was contributing a lot.

He ended the night with 23 points, 6-for-16 from the field, and 3-for-12 for three. Yet, the two time MVP was perfect from the foul stripe, hitting all his 8 attempts, and added 7 rebounds and assists each, with just one turnover in 27 minutes. We need to say that his comeback was excellent by all standards.

“To me, it feels like it’s on again. We’re now through the woods. We can use these games to try to reach a higher level of play,” said Steve Kerr.

Lee was the leading scorer of the Warriors along with Curry, hitting five threes in 12 attempts, ad grabbing five rebounds. Andrew Wiggins was excellent, and according to all experts he and Curry played very well in their first game together. The former No.1 picks scored 21 points, but posted 9 boards and was backing up Steph the whole time. Marquese Chriss had 17 and 12 boards, while Eric Paschall added 16 with 8 assists.

The Warriors have three straight games at home following tonight’s challenge, as they host the 76ers, LA Clippers and the Brooklyn Nets. Curry’s comeback promises very interesting battles, and it will be especially exciting to see Dub Nation in Milwaukee on March 14th vs. Bucks.

On the other side, the Raptors, have two stops before getting back home to Canada. The first is against the Kings in Sacramento, and after that jump from California to Salt Lake City, where they play against the Utah Jazz.