OAKLAND, CALIF.—It used to be that the only inevitability surrounding the Toronto Raptors was failure. It enveloped them, fast or slow or suddenly. Twenty-three years on, it was reliable. At times, this team flirted with it. They could have been stopped long before they got here.
But finally, the inevitability came to them. The Golden State Warriors were fighters and champions, and in the final game at Oracle Arena, the crowd were champions, too. But the Warriors ran out of bodies, one by one, and the Raptors smashed the ruins. In Game 6 of the NBA Finals, Toronto defeated the Golden State Warriors 114-110; they won the series four games to two, toppling the basketball dynasty of the age.