With the NBA Finals headed to Oakland for Game 3 tonight, a lot of attention has been placed on the defense the Toronto Raptors played in Game 2 on Sunday. Head coach Nick Nurse used box-and-one defense to guard the Golden State Warriors and it cost them the game at times as Andre Iguodala hit a dagger late in the game to seal the win.
While being interviewed by the media on Tuesday, Cousins referred to their defensive scheme as "janky" and even compared them to a high school or an AAU team.
After the game on Sunday, Warriors point guard Steph Curry called the Raptors defense "disrespectful" as they were leaving players wide open under the assumption they would miss. As Curry put it, the Raptors defensive play ended up working to the Warriors advantage.
"The whole fourth quarter, they were playing some janky defense, just trying to send bodies to me everywhere and our whole roster just took advantage of it," Curry explained. "Over the course of the game, it's kind of disrespectful to leave Iguodala open like that with the game on the line. He's made big shots like that before, and he got it done tonight."
While the Raptors defense might be "janky," they were able to steal Game 1 because of it and almost came back to win Game 2 as well. Tonight's Game 3 at Oracle will truly show whether or not the Raptors can contain this dominant Warriors team.
[Via]