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The Toronto Raptors are not – and never have been – a basketball franchise. The Raptors are a standing joke, the NBA laughing stock. At a loss on who to play against, teams just fire up two screens and outrun them into the locker room.
Or that’s how it looked as the Golden State Warriors rocked a Raptors team with a rim made from iguana skin, a career-high 25 rebounds from Kevin Durant and a club-record 50 assists.
But that’s not how Raptors fans wanted to look at their team. Fans are spoiled by taking their beloved Raptors to the top of the NBA, convinced they were all capable of a run.
Sorry, this video has expired Video: Kevin Durant scores a career-high 25 points as the Warriors continue their dominance over the Raptors (ABC News)
In their fourth straight loss – after a 3-0 start to the season – and third in a row to the Warriors, many fans were not happy with the outcome, threatening to boycott the team.
“My heart hurts,” said Bleacher Report basketball analyst Jordan Schultz, who added: “Holy crap, just woke up to lots of messages blaming the Toronto Raptors. I should know. I’ve had five baby daughters.”
When a basketball player makes great play, fans respond with silly chants. Fans boo the poor player, boo the coach, boo the whole team. After every bad performance the entire fanbase is on one single page: Passive-Aggressive Rage.
Kevin Durant had 13 rebounds in the first half as the Warriors dismantled the Raptors 95-85 in the Warriors’ third straight win over Toronto, following last year’s Finals run and also the 2013 and 2014 Eastern Conference Finals. Durant also went 3-of-7 from three-point range for 15 points.
The final tally made it a series sweep for the Warriors, who took control in the fourth quarter with a 22-10 run, turned a 57-53 deficit into a 76-71 lead.
Golden State play the Houston Rockets in Houston later on Sunday, who are seeking their own first-ever sweep of a four-game road trip.
Twitter was with the #waitingforit hashtag:
Excited for #WarriorsLA on Tuesday. Here’s a handy guide to fix the 45% mark. #NBA #NBAVote #Timberwolves #Thunder #Bulls #Hornets pic.twitter.com/r8vM6E45e7 — Golden State Warriors (@warriors) November 19, 2018
Stephen Curry is concerned for how fans will react if the Warriors don’t get more balanced production.
“We’ll see the refs are having fun in the fourth quarter, or the media, who have been making fun of us. Everybody, we’re going to have to find an ugly answer to it,” he said.
“We’re not going to be able to afford that in a playoff series, especially in the rims and wings of games.”
Klay Thompson added: “The league will come after us with fines, suspensions and stuff like that, but it will be unwarranted. The Raptors are good, we know that. They have played great for five, six years now, they’ve done really well in the playoffs, and they are a serious contender to win it all.”
When the Rockets played the Clippers in Los Angeles, the team that leads the NBA in scoring coming into the game was Warriors, but it went the other way on Sunday.
The Warriors have beaten the Clippers, the Spurs and the Thunder in one of their two losses, and now are perfect.
Dwight Howard had a season-high 21 points in the win, which was the eighth win in a row for the Rockets, the best record in the Western Conference. They have yet to play the Warriors, who have won 41 of their 43 games this season.
With James Harden injured, Trevor Ariza is averaging 16.8 points and 10.2 rebounds.
Jamal Crawford (and the Los Angeles Clippers) and Clint Capela (Houston) got the rare double-double. Capela with a career-high 33 points and 13 rebounds in a win over the Dallas Mavericks.
Crawford with 22 points and 11 rebounds while Capela was also a double-double artist with 23 points and 16 rebounds. Their first-round pick last season, Hamidou Diallo had 19 points in Memphis’ win over Orlando.
And when Zach LaVine came off the bench to score 20 points and Karl-Anthony Towns had 18 points, the two Minnesota players were selected as