The Latest: Kevon Looney starting at center for Warriors
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The Latest from Thursday night’s Game 6 of the NBA Finals (all times local):
8:50 p.m.
The Toronto Raptors are NBA champions for the first time.
The Raptors defeated the Golden State Warriors 114-110 in Game 6 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night. The Raptors won the series 4-2, denying the Warriors what would have been a third straight championship.
Kyle Lowry and Pascal Siakam had 26 points apiece for the Raptors, Fred VanVleet and Kawhi Leonard each had 22 for Toronto.
Klay Thompson scored 30 for Golden State but left with a knee injury. Andre Iguodala scored 22 points and Stephen Curry had 21 for the Warriors. Curry missed a 3-pointer with about 5 seconds left, the Raptors tacked on a free throw off a technical in the last second when the Warriors called a time-out they didn’t have, and the last game at Oracle Arena was the last game of Golden State’s reign.
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8:15 p.m.
The Warriors say Klay Thompson will not return to Game 6 because of his left knee injury.
There was no word on severity of the injury. The Warriors were already without Kevin Durant, out with a ruptured Achilles that left the team fielding some criticism about the risk he was taking by returning to the series while already dealing with a lower-leg injury.
Thompson got hurt when fouled on a drive in the third quarter. He left with 30 points.
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8:05 p.m.
What a wild third quarter in Game 6 of the NBA Finals.
Klay Thompson has 30 points but has left the floor to get his left knee checked out, Andre Iguodala has 20 and the Golden State Warriors lead the Toronto Raptors 88-86 going into the fourth quarter.
Thompson was hurt late in the third, left the floor, then re-emerged —to wild cheering — to make his free throws after taking a foul and hard fall on a drive.
Kyle Lowry has 24 points, Pascal Siakam has 21 and Kawhi Leonard has 19 for Toronto. Leonard nearly tied it on a tip-in at the third-quarter buzzer but the ball didn’t get off his hand in time.
Thompson ended the quarter in the locker room. There is no word yet on if he’ll return.
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8 p.m.
Klay Thompson got hurt in a scary fall, left the floor — and came back to make free throws.
Thompson took a very awkward landing and his knee bent abnormally when he was fouled on a drive. He left the floor during a time-out, but if he didn’t shoot the free throws he would have been ineligible to come back.
So he emerged from the tunnel, took his free throws and made both. He then left the game a few seconds later, jogging to the locker room.
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7:15 p.m.
Kyle Lowry has 21 points and Toronto leads Golden State 60-57 after a back-and-forth first half of Game 6 of the NBA Finals.
Lowry tied a playoff career-high for a first half. He’s 7 for 9 from the floor.
Pascal Siakam has 13 points and Serge Ibaka scored 10 for the Raptors. Kawhi Leonard has nine points and three fouls.
Klay Thompson leads the Warriors with 18 points. Andre Iguodala has 11 and Stephen Curry was held to nine in the first half for Golden State.
There has been 14 lead changes and four ties so far, with the Raptors trying to clinch the title.
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7:05 p.m.
No team has ever scored more points in an NBA season than the 2018-19 Golden State Warriors.
Andre Iguodala’s score in the second quarter of Game 6 of the NBA Finals gave Golden State 46 points for the evening — and put the Warriors up to 12,097 for the season, including playoffs.
The most points ever scored in a season had been 12,096, by the 1984-85 Los Angeles Lakers in 101 games. These Warriors, who are playing their 104th game of the season, entered Thursday with 12,051.
Golden State scored 12,006 points in the 2015-16 season, in 106 games. That’s the third-most in a season.
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6:40 p.m.
Kyle Lowry has 15 points and Toronto leads Golden State 33-32 after the first quarter of Game 6 of the NBA Finals.
The Raptors made seven 3-pointers in the quarter, after going 8 for 32 from deep in Game 5. Lowry was 4 for 4 from beyond the arc.
He scored Toronto’s first 11 points, and needed barely over 2 minutes to get there. He’s also the first player in these playoffs to make four 3-pointers in the opening quarter of a game.
Klay Thompson made his first four shots and has 10 for Golden State. Toronto led by as many as nine points, and Stephen Curry nearly made an 85-footer to end the quarter.
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6:10 p.m.
The final game at Oracle Arena has started.
Still unclear: If it’ll also be the final game of this NBA season.
Game 6 of the NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors has tipped off. The Raptors lead the series 3-2 and have a chance to clinch their first championship.
The two-time defending champion Warriors are merely trying to send it back to Toronto for a winner-take-all Game 7 on Sunday night.
This game is the 2,070th game at Oracle for the Warriors. They’ll move from Oakland to the Chase Center in San Francisco next season.
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5:45 p.m.
The Warriors are going with yet another new starting lineup.
Golden State is trying its 11th different starting five of this postseason, adding Kevon Looney at center to the first-string unit for Game 6 of the NBA Finals. The 11 lineups extends Golden State’s NBA record for a single playoffs, at least since such things started being tracked nearly 50 years ago.
Looney will join Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala, Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry in Golden State’s first five.
Toronto’s starters are unchanged: Kyle Lowry, Danny Green, Marc Gasol, Pascal Siakam and Kawhi Leonard.
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4:35 p.m.
Golden State coach Steve Kerr says ailing Warriors big man Kevon Looney will try to play in Game 6 of the NBA Finals.
The 6-foot-9 Looney re-aggravated a cartilage fracture in his right collarbone area during Game 5.
Kerr says, “Kevon just warmed up on the court with Chris DeMarco. He’s doing decently I think he’ll give it a go. We’ll see how he holds up.”
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4:15 p.m.
The Warriors are honoring injured star Kevin Durant and paying tribute to Oracle Arena with yellow rally towels given to fans for Game 6 of the NBA Finals.
One line on the towel reads FOR OAK and the next line says LAND (FOR OAKLAND) with the “K” and “D” lined up in white for Durant’s initials and nickname, “KD.”
In the 2,070th game at Oracle, the Warriors were set to sell out their 343rd consecutive game and say farewell at last to the place they called home for 47 years. Golden State will move its games, practices and day-to-day operations to new Chase Center in San Francisco beginning next season.
Oracle held its first game on Nov. 29, 1966 against Chicago.
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11 a.m.
The Toronto Raptors have a second chance at claiming their first NBA championship.
Game 6 of the NBA Finals will be played Thursday night, the Raptors entering with a 3-2 series lead over the two-time defending champion Golden State Warriors.
Golden State is 0-3 at home against Toronto this season, losing all three games by double digits. And this will be the final time that the Warriors play a home game at Oracle Arena, with the team moving to the Chase Center in San Francisco next season.
Golden State fought off elimination with a 106-105 win in Game 5 at Toronto on Monday night.
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