NBA Finals: 4 burning questions ahead of Warriors-Raptors

Which “other guys” will step up the most?

The NBA Finals is – and always has been – a stage for stars but it’s often the role players – or “other guys” – that will determine the outcome of the series and that trend does not seem to be changing any time soon.

All year long, Golden State has had one of the worse bench units in the league but they have really stepped up in the postseason. Especially since the KD injury, Coach Kerr has been willing to go 10-11 deep and each guy seems ready to contribute, coming off the bench.

It has been a different story for Toronto however, as they had one of the deeper teams and better bench units all year but once the playoffs rolled around, they were nowhere to be found. Sure, guys like Serge Ibaka had their moments but overall, the team’s bench production regressed from where it was at in the regular season.

That was until the conference finals where both Fred Van Fleet and Norman Powell both found their games and provided huge sparks at times in the series.

So now, both squads will hope to get the good version of their respective supporting units but I want to point out one role player on each side that must step up in the finals.

For the Warriors, it’s Andre Iguodala. Provided Iggy is ready to go and has recovered from the injury that kept him out of Game 6 against the Rockets, he’s going to be needed to sustain the level of play he’s shown in the playoffs to this point, especially early on in the series with KD sidelined. He’ll need to continue knocking down open shots when given the opportunity but what they’ll need even more is his defence, especially on Kawhi.

For the Raptors, it’s Danny Green who has struggled with his shot all playoffs long. His shooting slump got so bad that, in Games 5 and 6 of the conference finals, Green only averaged 14 minutes and was 0-7 from 3 in those two games (all of them open corner threes. He’s still one of the better perimeter defenders in the league and they’ll need him to defend Klay (and maybe Steph at times) so he’ll need to be playing more than 14 minutes a game.

So, he must break out of this slump. If he can regain his stroke (he connected on 45% of his triples in the regular season) then Toronto’s offence can open up and reach another gear!

The stage is now set for what I think will be a hard-fought and yes, close series. Everything seems to point to Golden State three-peating but they do have injury issues that Toronto does not, they don’t have home court advantage and – with the way the Raptors have played all year long – it is going to be anything but a walk in the park.

What are some of your biggest questions heading into the 2019 NBA finals? Leave a comment below!