Mendoza: Why Toronto is NBA champ

GOLDEN State wasn’t only walking injured. It was also playing injured.

That virtually summed up the story in the just ended NBA Finals.

Thus, Toronto needed to win or it would have been jeered no end by Canada’s 37 million people.

Who knows, those wildly-cheering crowd at Jurassic Park in Toronto might have easily transformed into a wild mass of reincarnated dinosaurs had the Raptors not prevailed in Game 6 in Oakland’s Oracle Arena.

When the Raptors finally wrapped it up with a title-clinching 114-110 victory over the Warriors on Friday (PHL time), Toronto’s place in world basketball had been cemented.

Thanks mainly to a Golden State team lacking in punch, bereft of depth and badly in need of reliable personnel.

Consider: Four Warriors weren’t warrior-like at all.

Kevin Durant missed the first four games wherein his team went down 3-1. His calf injury wasn’t totally healed.

Forced to play in Game 5 and become the rallying point of his teammates, he feigned pain, doing fine until he suffered an injury again: A torn Achilles’ heel.

He limped out of the game in the second quarter but not after contributing 11 points, including three triples, that somehow didn’t go to waste when Golden State posted a 106-105 win to cut Toronto’s lead to 3-2.

Klay Thompson was going for his 30th point on Friday with a dud dunk when he fell hard on a foul by Danny Green.

With 2:22 left in the second quarter, Thompson made his two free throws for an 85-80 Warriors lead—only to leave the game for good on a knee injury.

And wasn’t DeMarcus Cousins not exactly healthy, playing mostly on instinct if only to show his love for Golden State?

Kevon Looney was nursing a chest pain, a rib kissing a muscle when he raised his arms trying to go for a rebound.

And, as if orphaned by Thompson’s departure on Friday, Steph Curry lost his touch and finished with “only” 21 points (not 19).

But, of course, here’s a glass to Kawhi Leonard, who played his role as the Toronto pillar to the hilt. His Finals MVP award would attest to that. Kaway to Kawhi!

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