I can’t stress enough how much I enjoyed watching “Kawhi Leonard & Kyle Lowry Postgame Interview” along with reading the report “NBA Playoffs 2019: Masai Ujiri’s bold moves, starting with the Kawhi Leonard gamble, forever changed Raptors history“. Here are links to a few notable time codes in the Postgame Interview,
0:11 Just LOVE this answer from Kyle Lowry: Why not feed the big dog? Let the big dog eat.
4:35 Kawhi Leonard: I don’t really judge my game like that. I’m more of a team aspect, see what my team is doing. Just want to win. I don’t care about being best player. I want to be the best team. I always said that.
5:13 Love this Q&A. [HT Canadian Press /CTV news for the following:]
//And another grin as Leonard and Lowry shared the post-game podium in the wake of the history-making 100-94 win over the Bucks. It came after Lowry was asked how this group had managed something no other Raptors team had accomplished. The point guard cracked a smile, looked left at Leonard, then broke into a laugh, looked at Leonard again and continued laughing. Leonard happily grinned back. “The one thing about Kawhi, and you guys all know it, is he literally stays level-headed all the time,” Lowry said admiringly. “He never gets up, he never gets down. He showed some emotion after Game 7 against the Sixers. But I think him and Danny (Green) brought that championship pedigree here, just kind of staying level-headed and even-keeled.” In the same news conference, Leonard deflected praise from team president Masai Ujiri, who called him the best player in the league during the post-game trophy ceremony.//
Milwaukee Bucks vs Toronto Raptors – Game 6 – Full Game Highlights | 2019 NBA Playoffs
Raptors, Good luck and all the best in the finals.
P.S. The following are great read too.
CBS Sports, “NBA Playoffs 2019: Raptors’ Kawhi Leonard stating case as best player on Earth with transcendent postseason run”
The Star, “Kyle Lowry took his chip and went all in with the Raptors“
“Kyle Lowry waited. Everything was happening so fast, but for Lowry, it slowed down. He knew Giannis Antetokounmpo was hovering. He knew Kawhi Leonard was coming fast. He knew the building was ready to pop. So he waited, turned, slipped the ball to Kawhi and, as Kawhi rose, Lowry gave Giannis a subtle, quick, tiny push to create an extra bit of space for his guy. Kawhi dunked. The place shook. The Raptors never trailed again.
“All people see is Game 1 of the Orlando series and Game 3 of the Philly series,” Lowry said, sitting courtside at shootaround before Game 5 of the Eastern Conference final in Milwaukee, before the Raptors ecstatically wrapped up the series in six games. “That’s what people see.”“
May 27, 2019 update: “Forget celebrating, Raptors’ Lowry focused on Warriors”
“With his first NBA Finals just days away, Kyle Lowry didn’t spend much time celebrating the fact that he is getting this opportunity.
Lowry already was at work on the Golden State Warriors the day after Toronto clinched a berth in the Finals with a Game 6 win, despite the fact that the entire team pretty much took Sunday off completely.
“Not much for me,” he said when asked how much time he gave himself to move on. […]
This will mark the fifth consecutive visit to the NBA Finals for the Warriors. Obviously it’s the first for the Raptors, but you won’t see Lowry giving the Warriors too much credit or respect.
“We know who they are,” Lowry said. “We’ve got to go out there and do our job. Our biggest thing is preparing ourselves just to be prepared. It’s our first day of preparation. We’ve got two more days to prep. We’ve got more film to watch, being on the court together. We’ve got to prepare ourselves just to be ready ourselves.”“
I just LOVE this! What a class act for Masai Ujiri in answering this way. #respect “To give Dwane Casey credit, he prepared us for this, too. This is not something that started in one year. I don’t know that a team can just start in one year. So I think, I want to say that Dwane Casey and DeMar DeRozan are a part of this, they are part of our journey and how far this has come.” [HT words taken from Doug Smith’s, The Star Sports Reporter, article “‘DeMar DeRozan, Dwane Casey are a part of this.’ Masai Ujiri praises ex-Raptors on eve of NBA final”
NBA Finals: Toronto Raptors GM Masai Ujiri speaks ahead of Game One | FULL
May 29, 2019, “Secret to beating Warriors? Get physical — and run”
“But if you’re the Raptors, maybe you humanize Curry and the Warriors – a.k.a. “the next team,” as Kawhi Leonard generically referred to them in the wake of Toronto’s Eastern Conference championship on Saturday night — by pointing out that they haven’t exactly run a gauntlet of giants to get here. Sure, their offence is the most explosive in league history. But it’s also true that they haven’t faced a defence as impressive as Toronto’s en route to the GTA. Golden State’s first-round victim, the L.A. Clippers, ranked 19th in defensive efficiency this season. Their second-round conquest, the Houston Rockets, ranked 18th. The Portland Trail Blazers — swept in the Western final — ranked 16th.
The Raptors ranked fifth, which is impressive when you consider they deployed 22 different starting lineups and their best defensive player, Leonard, sat out more than a quarter of their games and cruised through the ones he did play at a gear or two below full throttle. Still, as much as Toronto was successful in stymying the likes of Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo with a rotation often limited to seven or eight regulars during the opening three rounds, Toronto coach Nick Nurse has spoken of using as many as 10 players against the Warriors.“
2019 May 31 update: Just LOVE this story, CBC News, “How Drake found the ‘ultimate troll jersey’ for Game 1 of the NBA Finals Social Sharing – Owner of Brooklyn vintage shop tracked down rare Dell Curry jersey and hand delivered it to the hip hop star”
https://www.instagram.com/p/ByHOEADFFxL/
xxx
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