TORONTO – The Toronto Raptors made history the hard way Saturday night (Sunday, PHL time), reaching the NBA Finals for the first time after rallying past the Milwaukee Bucks 100-94 in Game 6.
Trailing by 15 points with 2:18 remaining in the third quarter, the Raptors scored the final 10 points of the frame. Then, with Kawhi Leonard on the bench for the first 3:30 of the fourth quarter, they took a two-point lead.
Leonard returned, and the game was in good hands. He finished with 27 points — seven in the fourth quarter — a career-best 17 rebounds and seven assists.
The Raptors, who lost the first two games of the Eastern Conference finals before winning four straight, will open the NBA Finals at home on Thursday night (Friday, PHL time) against the Golden State Warriors.
Pascal Siakam added 18 points, Kyle Lowry had 17 and Fred VanVleet scored 14 for the Raptors.
Lowry has been through many playoff failures in seven years with the Raptors.
Giannis Antetokounmpo had 21 points and 11 rebounds for the Bucks, who had the NBA’s best record (60-22) during the regular season. Brook Lopez added 18 points with nine rebounds and three blocks, Khris Middleton had 14 points, Ersan Ilyasova 13, and Malcolm Brogdon and George Hill 10 each.
Serge Ibaka’s dunk tied the game at 78 with 10:31 to play in the game, and Siakam’s jumper and VanVleet’s 3-pointer capped a 10-0 run to give Toronto a five-point lead.
A key play was Lowry’s steal and his handoff to Leonard, who dunked to increase the lead to eight with 6:46 remaining.
The Bucks came back with a 7-0 run to pull within one point on Antetokounmpo’s layup with 5:19 to play.
Marc Gasol’s 3-pointer had Toronto ahead by four, but Lopez reduced it to two with a layup at 3:29. The Raptors went up by five on Siakam’s tip-in with 2:06 to play.
Lopez made two free throws with 29.6 seconds to play, cutting the lead to three, but Milwaukee never had the ball within one possession in the closing minutes. Siakam and Leonard finished the game off with free throws. (Larry Millson, Field Level Media/Reuters)
