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2018–19 Toronto Raptors season
2019 NBA Champions From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The 2018–19 Toronto Raptors season was the 24th season of the franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA). During the off-season, the Raptors acquired small forward Kawhi Leonard from the San Antonio Spurs after trading franchise star DeMar DeRozan. The season ended with the franchise's first NBA Finals appearance and first NBA championship, ending the City of Toronto's 26-year championship drought if not counting Toronto FC’s 2017 MLS championship or Toronto Argonauts multiple Grey Cup Championships. The Raptors were one of two teams to have an offense and defensive rating that both ranked in the top 5 of the NBA.
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On May 11, 2018, the Raptors fired Dwane Casey after the team was swept by the Cleveland Cavaliers for the second consecutive time in the postseason.[1] On June 14, the Raptors promoted assistant coach Nick Nurse as their head coach.[2] The Raptors played their home games at newly renamed Scotiabank Arena.[3] For the first time since 2008–09, DeMar DeRozan (who spent his first nine seasons in the NBA with the Raptors) did not play for the Raptors, as he was traded, along with Jakob Poeltl and a protected 2019 first-round draft pick, to the San Antonio Spurs for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green. Later, on February 7, 2019, at the trade deadline, the Memphis Grizzlies traded Marc Gasol to the Raptors for Jonas Valančiūnas, Delon Wright and C. J. Miles. The Raptors later signed Jeremy Lin.
The Raptors finished the regular season with a 58–24 record, one less win than their franchise best the previous season, second best in the league for the second consecutive season, earning the second seed in the Eastern Conference. They also won their fifth Atlantic Division title in six years.
In the playoffs, the Raptors defeated the Orlando Magic in five games in the first round. They edged the Philadelphia 76ers in seven games in the semifinals to make their first Eastern Conference Finals appearance since 2016, with Kawhi Leonard's buzzer-beater over Joel Embiid, giving the Raptors a 92–90 victory in the series-clinching game 7. The series was a rematch of the 2001 Eastern Conference Semifinals, where the Allen Iverson-led 76ers defeated the Vince Carter-led Raptors in seven games. The Raptors defeated the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals 4–2, winning the last four games of the series after being down 0–2 to become the sixth team to overcome that deficit. They won the Finals against the two-time defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors, also the first NBA Finals series that was played outside the United States. They beat the Warriors 4–2, becoming the first non-US team to win the NBA title.[4]
The Raptors were the first Atlantic Division team since the 2007–08 Boston Celtics and the first Eastern Conference team since the 2015–16 Cleveland Cavaliers to win the championship. Before their victory, the Atlantic Division had had the second-longest title drought in the league. This was the first championship by a Toronto-based team in one of the major professional sports league since the Toronto Blue Jays won the 1993 World Series, excluding Toronto FC’s 2017 MLS championship and the Toronto Argonauts multiple Grey Cup championships. This was also the first major championship for a Canadian-based team since the Blue Jays World Series championship in 1993, which came less than 5 months after the Montreal Canadiens won the 1993 Stanley Cup.[5][6]
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Draft
The Raptors did not have a pick in the 2018 NBA draft. They had previously traded their selections to the Brooklyn Nets, who ended up drafting Džanan Musa, and to the Phoenix Suns, who ended up drafting George King.
Roster
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Standings
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Division
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Record vs opponents
(* game decided in overtime)
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Game log
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Preseason
Regular season
Playoffs
see also 2019 NBA Playoffs and 2019 NBA Finals
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Player statistics
Regular season
- † Denotes player spent time with another team in the season. Stats reflect time with the Raptors only.
Playoffs
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Transactions
Trades
July 18, 2018[7] | To Toronto Raptors Kawhi Leonard Danny Green |
To San Antonio Spurs DeMar DeRozan Jakob Pöltl 2019 protected Toronto first-round pick |
February 6, 2019[8] | To Toronto Raptors Cash considerations |
To Philadelphia 76ers Malachi Richardson Draft rights to Emir Preldžić 2022 second-round pick |
February 7, 2019[9][10] | To Toronto Raptors Marc Gasol |
To Memphis Grizzlies Jonas Valančiūnas Delon Wright CJ Miles 2024 second-round draft pick |
To Toronto Raptors Cash considerations |
To Brooklyn Nets Greg Monroe 2021 second-round draft pick |
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Awards
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References
Further reading
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