The Latest: Siakam stakes Raptors to 88-81 lead after 3rd
TORONTO (AP) - The Latest from the NBA Finals and Thursday's Game 1 between the Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors (all times local):
11 p.m.
Pascal Siakam has 26 points in 28 minutes, and the Toronto Raptors lead the Golden State Warriors 88-81 after three quarters of Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
Siakam is 11 for 13 from the floor in his first finals game.
Kawhi Leonard has 18 points and Marc Gasol has 16 for the Raptors. Former Golden State guard Patrick McCaw hit a big 3-pointer late in the third for the Raptors, putting them up by seven going into the final period.
Draymond Green has 10 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists for the Warriors. Golden State is 29-1 when he records a triple-double.
Stephen Curry leads the Warriors with 26 points, and Klay Thompson has scored 15.
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10:45 p.m.
Draymond Green got his fourth foul with 7:11 left in the third quarter. The Golden State Warriors left him in, and the Toronto Raptors immediately took advantage.
Pascal Siakam soared past a defenseless Green in transition for a layup, and the Raptors lead 73-63 midway through the third quarter of Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Green couldn't risk getting a fifth foul, and had no choice but to let Siakam go to the rim unbothered.
Kevon Looney and Shaun Livingston have three fouls for Golden State. Kawhi Leonard has three for Toronto and Marc Gasol got his third early in the third quarter.
Siakam leads all scorers with 22 points. Stephen Curry has 20 for the Warriors.
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10:20 p.m.
Marc Gasol has 14 points, Pascal Siakam has 12 and the Toronto Raptors lead the Golden State Warriors 59-49 at halftime of Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
Danny Green made a 3-pointer late in the half to put the Raptors up 10, their biggest lead of the night to this point. Toronto held Golden State -which is playing its first game in 10 days- to 36 percent shooting.
Foul trouble is an issue: Kawhi Leonard has three for Toronto, while Draymond Green and key reserves Kevon Looney and Shaun Livingston all have three apiece for Golden State.
Stephen Curry picked up his second foul on a close block-charge call against Leonard with 1:47 left in the half; Leonard turned it into a three-point play for a 52-45 lead.
This is the eighth game in these playoffs where the Warriors have faced a double-digit deficit. They're 4-3 so far in those contests, including wins in each of the last three games of the Western Conference finals against Portland.
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10:05 p.m.
Marc Gasol's hot start has continued, as he's up to 10 points and the Toronto Raptors lead the Golden State Warriors 42-41 with 4:06 left in the first half of Game 1.
Fred VanVleet has seven for the Raptors, in a game with nine lead changes already. Kyle Lowry and Kawhi Leonard are a combined 2 for 11.
Stephen Curry has 11 points, Klay Thompson has nine and Shaun Livingston has three fouls for the Warriors. DeMarcus Cousins played the first 4:20 of the second quarter for his finals career debut, scoring two points and handing out two assists.
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9:40 p.m.
The Toronto Raptors have started fast in their first NBA Finals game.
Marc Gasol made a pair of 3-pointers and the Raptors took a quick 25-21 lead over the two-time defending champion Golden State Warriors after one quarter of Game 1.
Toronto's first four baskets were all 3-pointers, and eight of the Raptors' first nine field-goal attempts were from beyond the arc. It definitely set a tone - 14 of the Raptors' 23 field-goal attempts in the quarter were from 3-point land, and 10 of the Warriors' 23 shots came from long distance.
Stephen Curry's first three baskets of these finals were, predictably, 3-pointers - giving him 101 in his finals career. He gave a courtside look at Raptors superfan Drake afterward after the first one dropped.
Curry led all scorers with 11 points in the quarter. Gasol led the Raptors with eight.
The first Warriors' sub wasn't DeMarcus Cousins, but rather Kevon Looney. He replaced Jordan Bell with 6:12 left in the quarter. Cousins was on the floor to start the second quarter for his first game action since injuring a quadriceps muscle on April 15.
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9:15 p.m.
The first NBA Finals outside the U.S. have tipped off, with Jordan Bell doing the honors for Golden State.
DeMarcus Cousins was active and available after recovering from a torn left quadriceps, but coach Steve Kerr opted to go with Bell as his starting center - or centre, as it's spelled in Toronto. Kerr says he expects he will have to use Cousins in shorter stints in his first game since getting hurt in the first round.
Andre Iguodala was also back in the Warriors' lineup after missing the last game of the Western Conference finals with left calf tightness.
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8:55 p.m.
Drake is wearing a Curry jersey for Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
Dell Curry, that is.
Stephen Curry's father ended his career as a member of the Raptors, and Drake was wearing his purple-and-black No. 30 jersey as he watched from his courtside seat near the Raptors' bench.
The rapper and Raptors' global ambassador was animated well before the game started, gesturing to fans and arena workers all around him. Commissioner Adam Silver said the league had talked to Drake and his manager about some of his antics -he rubbed Toronto coach Nick Nurse's shoulders during one game in the conference finals- and Silver says he believed they ended the discussions in a good place.
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7:40 p.m.
Toronto may be going back to a plan that worked in the Eastern Conference finals.
The East title series turned when the Raptors tasked Kawhi Leonard with guarding Milwaukee's best player and the league's likely MVP this season, Giannis Antetokounmpo.
So a similar tact may be in play for the NBA Finals, with Raptors coach Nick Nurse saying before Game 1 that Leonard -an elite defender- may get time guarding Golden State's Draymond Green, who is having a tremendous postseason run.
That being said, Nurse cautioned that "it's more than a one-person job" and said the emphasis on team defense will be paramount.
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7:05 p.m.
Larry Bird says Kawhi Leonard is "playing as good as anyone's ever played in this league through the playoffs."
But Bird also knows the Toronto Raptors face a new level of pressure in their first NBA Finals.
The three-time NBA champion says of the finals: "If you've never been there before and you never played in it, it's a different animal."
The Warriors have been here before, winning three titles in the last four years. Bird is especially impressed with a couple of Klay Thompson's standout performances, including one he saw in person when the Golden State guard scored 60 points against the Indiana Pacers in just 29 minutes.
Bird says the Warriors are "doing things with the 3-point line that I didn't think would ever happen in this league, so obviously they're a great basketball team and a great champion. But Toronto's got a great chance."
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6:50 p.m.
The Warriors will not see LeBron James in these NBA Finals, for a change.
They'll apparently see him plenty in the preseason next fall.
The Los Angeles Lakers announced their preseason schedule for the 2019-20 season on Thursday, a few hours before Game 1 of the NBA Finals, and revealed that they will be playing Golden State four times in exhibitions.
It was already known that the Warriors would play for the first time in their new building - the Chase Center in San Francisco- on Oct. 5 against the Lakers in a preseason opener. The teams will also play on Oct. 14 and Oct. 16 in Los Angeles, and then Oct. 18 back in San Francisco.
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6:40 p.m.
James Capers is the crew chief selected for Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
Capers is working his eighth finals. Jason Phillips, in his sixth finals, is also on the Game 1 crew. John Goble, in his third finals, was also assigned to the game.
Marc Davis, who will be an on-court ref later in the series, will work the game from the NBA's replay center. Josh Tiven will be on-site in Toronto as an alternate in case Capers, Phillips or Goble cannot finish the game for any reason.
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6:25 p.m.
Turns out, both of the Curry brothers will be at Game 1 of the NBA Finals after all.
NBC Sports Bay Area posted video of Seth Curry's arrival in Toronto on Thursday, one that came a few hours before Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors were to take on the Toronto Raptors in the opener of the title series.
Seth's Portland Trail Blazers were swept by Steph and the Warriors in the Western Conference finals. That was the first time brothers played against one another in the conference-final round of the NBA playoffs.
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2:25 p.m.
Golden State star Kevin Durant will miss Game 1 of the NBA Finals with his strained calf muscle, and Game 2 might not be in his plans either.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr says that "it's a long shot" that Durant will be able to practice with the team in Toronto before Game 2 of the title series against the Raptors. Kerr has said that Durant won't be back in a game until he practices with the team.
So that means Durant seems unlikely to return before Game 3 - at the earliest.
Kerr says Durant has been doing some on-court workouts, but there still is no concrete plan for when the 2017 and 2018 NBA Finals MVP can rejoin practices. Durant was hurt in Game 5 of the Warriors' second-round series against Houston.
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11:10 a.m.
Fans in Toronto are ready and eager for their city to play host to its first NBA Finals game.
Crowds began building outside Jurassic Park - the square outside Scotiabank Arena - shortly after sunrise Thursday, or about 15 hours before Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Raptors and the Golden State Warriors.
Former Toronto star Chris Bosh, who is working with Canadian broadcaster TSN for the series, also arrived there Thursday morning to greet and chat with some fans.
Officials say more than 5,000 fans will be in the square for the game, watching on big screens. Other similar watch parties are planned around the city for those not lucky enough to grab a ticket to watch inside the arena.
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