Five takeaways from Toronto Raptors critical Game 3 win vs Warriors
The Toronto Raptors came away with a critical victory against a short-handed Golden State Warriors team on Tuesday night. What did we learn from Game 3?
Just minutes prior to Game 3, the Golden State Warriors announced that Klay Thompson would not be available to play. And just like that, the Toronto Raptors went from significant road underdogs to sizeable favorites.
The term “must-win” gets thrown around way too often, and truthfully Game 3 was not quite one. If the Raptors fell behind 2-1, they wouldn’t be out of it. They’d still have a chance to steal Game 4 and finish the season with a three-game series and homecourt advantage. In that scenario, anything can happen.
But with both Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson inactive, this felt like the game to win. The Raptors needed to go into Oracle and come out with a victory.
That’s exactly what they did. Toronto controlled this game from start to finish, leading from the 10:25 mark in the first quarter forward. The Warriors made their push to cut the deficit at a few different points in the game, but this one was never really in question.
So what did we learn from the Raptors dominant Game 3 victory? Here are my five biggest takeaways:
Fire from outside
The Toronto Raptors lit up the scoreboard in this game. One reason why was their white-hot shooting from the perimeter.
The Raptors finished shooting 6-13 on corner threes, 11-25 on non-corner threes, and 6/7 from the long mid-range, according to CleaningTheGlass. Altogether they shot a combined 66-percent on perimeter shots, an unsustainably high number. For comparison, the Warriors shot just under 40-percent on such shots and were still above league-average.
Toronto was able to post an offensive rating of 124.2 despite attempting only 14 shots at the rim, that can’t happen unless you’re lighting it up from outside.
Some of the Raptors hot shooting can be attributed to the Warriors help-heavy scheme designed to take away primary options, particularly Kawhi Leonard. Golden State is loading up the strong side and asking the role players to beat them. Right now, the Raptors role players are doing exactly that.