It wasn’t even that long ago. Two hundred and sixty-six days, in fact.
The Raptors will face the Warriors in San Francisco Thursday night for the first time since winning the championship in Game 6 of the NBA Finals on June 13. But things are completely different.
Catch the game LIVE on TSN1, TSN4, TSN.ca, the TSN App and on TSN Direct beginning at 10:30 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. PT. Toronto can clinch a playoff spot with a win.
After losing two starters – Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard and three-point specialist Danny Green – the Raptors somehow find themselves second in the Eastern Conference at 43-18. Plus, they’ve dealt with more injuries this season than almost any team in the NBA.
Almost any team.
As much as the Raps have been hit by injuries, Golden State has been broadsided. They lead the league by far in players missing games because of injury. Klay Thompson has not played at all this season after tearing his ACL in Game 5 of the Finals. Steph Curry hasn’t played since October because of a broken hand, but, wouldn’t you know it, will make his return Thursday against Toronto.
Canadian Andrew Wiggins, the biggest name in the Warriors’ roster overhaul, told reporters Wednesday he can’t wait to play alongside his new teammate.
“He’s the type of player that single-handedly he’s going to come and change the way everyone plays for the better. So, I’m excited. He’s a game-changer.”
The Warriors have lost their fair share of game-changers recently, whether it’s because of injury, free agency or trade.
Only five Warriors who played in last year’s Finals remain on the team’s current roster. And only one of them might be in action Thursday.
Thompson won’t be as he continues to rehab his injured knee. Centre Kevon Looney is listed as out because of a hip injury. Draymond Green has missed the last three games because of an ailing knee and is officially questionable. So it really might just be Curry, Damion Lee and that’s left.
It’s hard to believe the level of change for both teams – especially the Warriors.
| OG Anunoby | TOR | TOR |
| Chris Boucher | TOR | TOR |
| Lorenzo Brown | TOR | EuroLeague |
| Marc Gasol | MEM/TOR | TOR |
| Danny Green | TOR | LAL |
| Serge Ibaka | TOR | TOR |
| Kawhi Leonard | TOR | LAC |
| Jeremy Lin | ATL/TOR | Chinese Basketball Association |
| Kyle Lowry | TOR | TOR |
| Jordan Loyd | TOR | Spanish Liga |
| Patrick McCaw | CLE/TOR | TOR |
| Jodie Meeks | TOR | Free agent |
| C.J. Miles | TOR/MEM | Free agent |
| Malcolm Miller | TOR | TOR |
| Greg Monroe | TOR/BOS/PHI | Basketball Bundesliga |
| Eric Moreland | TOR/PHO | Chinese Basketball Association |
| Norman Powell | TOR | TOR |
| Malachi Richardson | TOR | Lega Basket Serie A |
| Pascal Siakam | TOR | TOR |
| Jonas Valanciunas | TOR/MEM | MEM |
| Fred VanVleet | TOR | DAL |
| Jordan Bell | GSW | Free agent |
| Andrew Bogut | GSW | National Basketball League (Australia) |
| Quinn Cook | GSW | LAL |
| DeMarcus Cousins | GSW | Free agent |
| Steph Curry | GSW | GSW |
| Marcus Derrickson | GSW | Free agent |
| Kevin Durant | GSW | BKN |
| Jacob Evans | GSW | MIN |
| Draymond Green | GSW | GSW |
| Andre Iguodala | GSW | MIA |
| Jonas Jerebko | GSW | EuroLeague |
| Damian Jones | GSW | ATL |
| Damian Lee | GSW | GSW |
| Shaun Livingston | GSW | Retired |
| Kevon Looney | GSW | GSW |
| Alfronzo McKinnie | GSW | CLE |
| Klay Thompson | GSW | GSW |
All dynasties fall apart. But the pace of Golden State’s undoing is almost unheard of. At the 62-game mark last season, the Warriors were in first place at 43-19. This time around they’re 14-48 and own the worst record in the NBA.
The downturn started in Game 2 of the Finals when Looney and Thompson each suffered injuries that knocked them out of Game 3. While both players were able to return in the series, Thompson has not seen game-action since.
And then there was Kevin Durant. The former MVP made his return to the lineup in Game 5 after missing the previous nine games with what was being described as an ankle injury. Durant dropped 11 in the opening quarter and it looked like the Warriors had their mojo back, but it wouldn’t last.
While battling for a loose ball with Toronto’s Serge Ibaka early in the second quarter, Durant stopped in his tracks. It was clear something was wrong and Golden State’s worst fears were soon confirmed – it was a torn Achilles tendon for the Warriors’ star, ending his season and eventually his tenure in the Bay Area. Durant announced on the first day of free agency he was signing with the Brooklyn Nets, delivering possibly the biggest blow to the Warriors dynasty.
Let’s go through the rest of the Golden State roster. Andre Iguodala was traded to the Grizzlies to clear salary cap room for a D’Angelo Russell sign-and-trade with the Nets. DeMarcus Cousins went to the Lakers. So did Quinn Cook. Shaun Livingston retired. Other players Alfonzo McKinnie, Andrew Bogut, Jordan Bell, Jonas Jerebko and Jacob Evans no longer remain on their roster.
The Warriors don’t even look the same as they did at the start of this season, swinging a blockbuster deal swapping Russell for Wiggins and a first-round pick. They also shipped centre Willie Cauley-Stein to the Dallas Mavericks in January.
Like Golden State, the Raptors lost their best player to another team in free agency. Terence Davis and Rondae-Hollis Jefferson have helped fill the void as new faces, but multiple injuries have forced head coach Nick Nurse to make adjustments on the fly.
Last season, Toronto’s top five in minutes played went:
1. Pascal Siakam (2,548)
2. Danny Green (2,216)
3. Kyle Lowry (2,213)
4. Kawhi Leonard (2,040)
5. Serge Ibaka (2,010)
This year’s order looks completely different:
1. Kyle Lowry (1,789)
2. OG Anunoby (1,787)
3. Pascal Siakam (1,767)
4. Fred VanVleet (1,719)
5. Serge Ibaka (1,275)
In terms of Toronto’s injuries, VanVleet (shoulder), Ibaka (knee) and Gasol (hamstring) are questionable for Thursday’s rematch. Gasol was originally listed as out but he’s been upgraded, which is an encouraging sign and should indicate he’s close, notes TSN’s Josh Lewenberg.
Thursday’s matchup won’t be the same as last time. The stakes are lower, the rosters are different and the Warriors are a shell of their former selves.
Still, it’s bringing back quite the set of memories for the Raptors.
“It is going to bring back a lot of memories. It is already, just being here. It’s interesting,” Nick Nurse said Wednesday on TSN 1050.
“It’s incredible what we did and I think most of the time when things aren’t going well you can think back: ‘We did that and we’re capable, we have the people to do it [again], we have to continue to get better,’” Siakam said.
Toronto leads the Boston Celtics by one game in the standings for the No. 2 spot in the Eastern Conference behind the Milwaukee Bucks. The Warriors, meanwhile, are looking to end a nine-game home losing streak at the Chase Center.
The Olympic rings are set up at Trocadero plaza that overlooks the Eiffel Tower in Paris.Michel Euler/The Associated Press
In the middle of a record haul at the Tokyo Olympics, Canada’s women’s swim team had one letdown – the 4×200-metre freestyle relay.
Canada had taken bronze in the event at Rio 2016 and again at the 2019 world aquatics championships. The team looked good for another medal.
On the day of the final, a Chinese team that was not considered a contender surprised everyone, winning in world-record time. Canada came fourth.
A battling result, but still disappointing. It looks a little worse than that now.
Over the weekend, the New York Times reported that nearly half the Chinese swim team failed a drug test seven months before the Tokyo Games. Twenty-three swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine, or TMZ.
TMZ is a synthetic substance. You’re not going to pick it up because you’ve chosen the wrong hot-dog vendor.
China was allowed to do its own investigation into the mass positive. That probe determined the athletes had been exposed to TMZ in tainted food at a team hotel. How exactly so many of them ingested it, while others did not, wasn’t explained.
Unusually, no announcement was made about the positive tests, and no one was suspended while the investigation was under way. The World Anti-Doping Agency knew what was going on, but decided the best way to determine if China had done anything wrong was to ask China to look into it. When China gave China the all clear, WADA signed off.
One of those who tested positive was Zhang Yufei. Zhang won three medals in Tokyo, one of them as part of the 4x200m relay team.
The swimming world is now playing doping leapfrog throughout those Games. The Canadian relay team is on a long list of unlucky losers. Had China’s violations stuck, the medal table would look very different.
It would also have pushed a Games that was on the edge closer to the drop. Few in Japan were super stoked about the world dropping by en masse during what would become that country’s first mass COVID wave.
The main reason the Tokyo Games happened was that so much money had been spent, much more was still owed, and insurers were not willing to write down 10 or 15 billion.
Picking a fight with China in that precarious moment could not have seemed like a great idea. Even more precarious – the next Games, to be held six months later in Beijing.
As an event, at absolute best, Beijing 2022 was going to be a very expensive bummer (which it absolutely was). That’s the sort of party that’s easy to call off.
You don’t need to be a Reddit obsessive to see what happened here. The Chinese swim team got caught mid-purge, and the people in charge had to prioritize their response.
Priority No. 1 – the Olympic business.
Priority No. 2 – the Olympic ideals.
They picked money over fairness.
It’s easy to lash them now, so plenty of people are. The head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency called it “a devastating stab in the back of clean athletes.”
(Is it possible to be undevastatingly stabbed in the back?)
The stickiest criticism involves Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva. She also tested positive for trace amounts of TMZ before an Olympics. She also had one of those ‘maybe the dog gave me steroids’-type excuses.
But since everybody hates Russia, Valieva did not get the benefit of an in-house probe. She was dragged upside-down and backward through the global press and stripped of her medals. There’s your fairness.
It’s fitting that WADA take a reputational beating here. That is its most useful function – to absorb stakeholder rage after another own goal has been scored by the Doping Police.
But out in the real world, no one cares. Of course the Olympics is dirty. The Olympics has spent the last half century repeatedly reminding us of that.
Between Games, the Olympics makes news only two ways – ‘Upcoming host city X is having serious second thoughts’ and ‘So-and-so cheated their way to gold.’
These stories have become so numerous that the only people registering them are the ones who make their living in an Olympics-adjacent business, like sports administration or media.
Those people are happy to complain – complaining is good for trade – but they don’t want things to change. Change is dangerous. Who knows where change will land you?
In this specific instance, real change in the form of zero tolerance could have hobbled one Olympics and gotten the next one cancelled. Then what?
You start cancelling Olympics and people learn to live without them. Sponsors find new things to sponsor. Broadcasters move on.
Better to compromise. Chinese swimmers did a little TMZ. So what? Figure skaters, tennis players, breaststrokers – everybody’s doing it nowadays. It’s like weed for the Marx and Engels crowd.
With all that in mind, here’s something you won’t often read in this space – WADA made the right call.
It’s not like it was going to go swanning into Guangdong province in early 2021, right in the teeth of the pandemic, to figure out what was what. The only way to get any sort of answers was to rely on Chinese investigators. How do you know if they’re on the up and up? You don’t. WADA had two choices – take China’s word for it, or go scorched earth right before the two most tenuously assembled Games in history.
The proof that WADA made the correct choice is that those Games happened. Maybe it would make a different call now, and that might be right, too.
As far as fairness goes, it doesn’t belong in this conversation.
If a Belgian or a Tanzanian gets caught cheating, don’t even bother asking for consideration.
An American? Probably not.
An American everyone knows? Maybe.
A lot of Americans everybody knows? Let’s talk.
This can’t be discussed because once that discussion gets going, it points toward the sort of change no current stakeholder want to think about. If someone who tests positive can negotiate their way out of it and fairness is the goal, isn’t it fairer to stop testing altogether?
Was it an alley-oop? A Hail Mary? A Jerry Rice post route? Catch and ReLeaf?
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Whatever it was, it was the goal Toronto Maple Leafs fans were waiting for.
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If the Leafs go on to beat the Boston Bruins and make it out of the first round for the second year in a row, fans will look back at Max Domi’s flip pass and Auston Matthews’ catch and finish as the moment it all became possible.
Matthews’ 70th goal of the season (69+1 if we’re splitting hairs) was maybe his finest.
The play: Incredible. The catch: Immaculate. The finish: Nasty. The timing: Perfect.
Social media had plenty to say about Monday’s game-winning goal, but first let’s listen to calls of the play from every corner of the playoff series:
Chris Cuthbert on Hockey Night in Canada:
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Retiring voice of the Boston Bruins Jack Edwards:
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Of course, nothing can compare to Joe Bowen’s call on Toronto radio. Any Leafs moment isn’t complete until fans hear what the High Priest of Holy Mackinaw said, and he didn’t disappoint:
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It didn’t take long for Matthews’ game-winner to go viral across social media, with fans, media and ex-players weighing in on the incredible goal. The Leafs and Bruins resume their first round series on Wednesday in Toronto at 7 p.m.
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It was a game of big numbers at Rogers Place that featured 82 shots, 72 faceoffs, 112 hits and 11 goals. Connor McDavid scored 5 points, Zach Hyman and Evan Bouchard 4 each. Adam Henrique scored his first playoff point in 12 years. And the Edmonton Oilers won the opening game of a playoff series on their home ice for the first time in 12,409 days.
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But win it they did, cruising to a 7-4 win over Los Angeles Kings to establish a 1-0 series lead in the 2024 edition of the seemingly annual opening round series between the two.
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It wasn’t always pretty, but several of the goals sure were. The Oilers held the advantage in play, outshooting the Kings 45-37 with an 18-10 advantage in Grade A Shots as recorded by the Cult of Hockey (running count). 8 of those Grade A shots came on a red-hot powerplay that produced 3 goals in a combined time of 4:50.
#2 Evan Bouchard, 7. Moved the puck well for the most part and had 4 secondary assists to show for it, not to mention a tertiary that doesn’t show up on the scoresheet. But was among the defensive culprits on both LA goals that cut a 4-0 lead in half before the end of the second period. Way more good than bad on the night. Contributions to Grade A Shots (GAS): Even Strength +3/-2, Special Teams +1/-0.
#5 Cody Ceci, 6. Played a rock solid defensive game, landing 5 hits and winning the lion’s share of battles. Victimized on a couple of unlucky goals against in garbage time, and in the spotlight himself on 1 of them when his stick exploded making a routine D-to-D pass after a won neutral zone faceoff. His 19:00 at even strength led the team. GAS: ES +2/-3; ST +1/-0.
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#13 Mattias Janmark, 5. Classic Janmark game in which not a whole lot happened during his 10 minutes of action, pro or con. Tagged with an undeserved -1 on the Ceci-stick-explodes goal. GAS: +0/-0; ST 0.
#14 Mattias Ekholm, 6. Solid with a couple of shaky moments. Made a couple of lunging stops on the same dangerous sequence. His neutral zone turnover led to a Viktor Arvidsson breakaway early in the second, then he was unable to contain Adrian Kempe on the 4-2. Delivered a great stretch pass to Hyman for a breakaway chance. Led the D with 2:00 on the penalty kill. GAS: ES +4/-2; ST 0.
#18 Zach Hyman, 9. All over it from the get-go, driving hard to the net time and again. Scored a goal in each period by materializing in a dangerous spot and converting a McDavid pass from close range. Added a primary assist on Henrique’s goal. Took a goalie interference for another net drive gone wrong. Later drew a call the other way. Hit a post in a scramble. Robbed by Talbot’s best save of the game on a breakaway. Took a knock on the continuation of that play and was in pain, but returned for another shift and appeared to be OK. May have set a record for most hats on the ice for a hat trick. 9 shots on net to lead both teams. Also added 5 hits and was a central figure in the battle all night long. GAS: ES +7/-1; ST+3/-0.
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#19 Adam Henrique, 7. His first playoff game in 6 years and his first playoff win in 12. Won a battle leading to the first Oilers goal, scored the second himself with a strong wrist shot from range, then earned an assist on the third. Made a great aerial deflection of Ceci’s outside shot. Took a penalty. Among those beaten on the first Kings goal. GAS: ES +4/-1; ST +1/-1.
#25 Darnell Nurse, 6. Played a solid 2-way game with 7 shot attempts, 2 blocks, and 6 hits. Won a lot of battles along the way. Pasted Kempe in the early going with a booming open-ice hit. Safe and sound behind his own blueline until the very late going, when a cross-ice pass caught his skate and found the net to make it 6-3. GAS: ES +0/-2; ST 0.
#27 Brett Kulak, 5. Low event game including no goals at either end of the sheet during his 16 minutes. GAS: ES +0/-2; ST 0.
#29 Leon Draisaitl, 8. Nearly wrecked himself on his opening shift when he took a run at a King and missed, but thankfully survived. Did his best work on the powerplay, setting up an RNH tally with a brilliant pass and scoring the winning goal himself with a brilliant shot. Also made a superb pass to RNH on an even-strength 2-on-1 that wasn’t converted. Strong defensively. Drew a penalty. Rock solid on the faceoff dot at 15/24=63%. 3 shots at one end, 2 blocks (!) at the other. GAS: ES =0/-0; ST +5/-0.
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#37 Warren Foegele, 6. Mashed Drew Doughty with an excellent hit in the very early going. Played a simple, solid game. Scored the empty netter that finalized the score line, after first stealing the puck in the neutral zone.
#39 Sam Carrick, 5. Played his first career playoff game at age 32 and got the job done. His line with Holloway and Janmark lost the possession battle but held their own on the scoresheet until the late fluke. He did get tagged with a -1 on the 4-2, but his “mistake” there was to do the job hjje was sent out to do and win a d-zone faceoff. 1 shot, 2 blocks, 4 hits, and 10/18=56% on the dot. GAS: +0/-0; ST 0.
#55 Dylan Holloway, 5. Held his own in his second career playoff game. GAS: +0/-0; ST 0.
#71 Ryan McLeod, 6. Played a fine defensive game between the vets Kane and Perry. 2 takeaways, 2 blocked shots. GAS: ES +2/-0; ST 0.
#73 Vincent Desharnais, 6. Rock of Gibraltar on the blue, with 6 hits and 5 shot blocks. On the receiving end of a nasty low-bridge hit by Trevor Moore that left him in obvious pain as the second period wound down, but returned in the third to finish the job. Best of all, the Oil scored the game winner on the resultant powerplay. GAS: +0/-1; ST 0.
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#74 Stu Skinner, 6. Very good in the first half of the game. Contributed the TSN Turning Point when he got a tiny piece of his pad on Viktor Arvidsson’s breakaway shot, with the Oilers subsequently scoring on the continuation. The game that could have been 2-1, was instead 3-0. The back half of the game went less well with 4 official GA and a fifth which was gloved in and correctly called back after a couple of nervous minutes. Struggled a bit with rebound control. 37 shots, 33 saves, .892 save percentage.
#90 Corey Perry, 5. Put the puck in good places, including on Kane’s stick for a couple of great chances in tight. 3 hits, 2 takeaways. GAS: ES +2/-0; ST 0.
#91 Evander Kane, 6. Was visible throughout, mostly in good ways. Fired 6 shots on net including a couple of powerful wristers. nearly squeezing one through Talbot. Did have a couple of issues suppressing outside shots from the point. Led EDM forwards with 15:45 TOI at even strength. GAS: ES +3/-1.
#93 Ryan Nugent Hopkins, 6. Set up perfectly by Draisaitl for what apepared to be a wide open net, but the puck rolled off his stick. Made up for it a few minutes later with a strong goal mouth finish of another sweet Draisaitl feed. 4 shots, 2 blocks, 2 hits, 1 takeaway, and a team-high 2:04 on the 2-for-2 penalty kill. GAS: ES +0/-0; ST +1/-0.
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#97 Connor McDavid, 9. Became just the 15th player in NHL history with 5 (or more) assists in a playoff game, joining dynasty Oilers Wayne Gretzky (2x), Paul Coffey, Glenn Anderson and 10 others from other teams. 4 of them were primary assists, including all 3 of Hyman’s tallies. Twice McDavid beat defenders with brilliant spin moves before dishing. Threaded a bullet pass through Matt Roy’s skates for Hyman’s hat trick goal. 3 shots, 3 hits, and uncounted passes. GAS: ES +3/-0; ST +6/-0.
STAPLES: Big questions about Nurse-Ceci pairing
STAPLES: Hitting is way up in playoffs. Are Oilers up to it?
McCURDY: Kane, Janmark, Holloway all look good to go for Game One
McCURDY: Oilers vs. Kings anything but a foregone conclusion
STAPLES: Kane, Janmark missing from practice. What are the implications?
STAPLES: Pretty much every NHL commentator is picking Oilers over Kings
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