When watching the first game of the Finals, I noticed a few key things that led the Raptors to their convincing game 1 victory over the Golden State Warriors. The three main things that guided the Raptors to the win that I noticed was the Warriors’ poor transition defense, the Raptors defense on Steph Curry, and of course, Pascal Siakam. First off, the Raptors aggressiveness in transition became potent when paired with the Warriors’ lackluster transition defense. Over the course of the game, the Raptors tallied a total of 24 fast break points. And many of these fast break points came off of simple outlet passes that kept the ball moving the whole time it traveled down the court. For example, look at how the Raptors attack in transition in this play midway through the first quarter. Gasol comes down with the rebound after the missed shot. Notice how every single Warriors defender is ahead of the ball after the rebound and even after Gasol passes it to Lowry. But the Raptors stayed aggressive and caught Danny Green streaking towards the basket. If you look closely, you can see how Curry’s quick defensive lapse leads to the easy bucket for the Raptors. Curry needs to make an effort to get out in front of Danny Green instead of being content to trail behind him. In this next play, notice how aggressively Lowry attacks the basket. Lowry gets the rebound and immediately begins pushing the ball up the court. The Warriors
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