By Canadian Press

Warriors even NBA Finals with Raptors despite injury toll in Game 2 win

Jun 2, 2019 | 10:05 PM

TORONTO — No Kevin Durant. No Kevon Looney. No Klay Thompson. No problem for the Golden State Warriors.

With Durant watching from the sidelines again Sunday night due to a calf injury, the defending champion Warriors managed to even up the NBA Finals at one game apiece after a 109-104 win over the Raptors that came despite a line of Golden State players going down during the contest.

Steph Curry went to the locker-room at the end of the first quarter. Andre Iguodala was floored after running into a Marc Gasol screen.

Looney exited with a left chest contusion after being sent flying through the air by Kawhi Leonard bulling his way to the basket late in the first quarter. Thompson left in the fourth quarter with left hamstring tightness after landing awkwardly.

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“Klay said he’ll be fine, but Klay could be half dead and he would say he would be fine,” coach Steve Kerr said after the game. “We’ll see. He pulled his hamstring. He thinks it is minor, so I don’t know what that means going forward.”

As for Curry, Kerr said the word he got was that his star guard was a little dehydrated.

“He just was feeling a little bit lightheaded and went back into the training room and came back and was doing much better. So I’m not exactly sure beyond that. So that’s all I’ve got for you.”

Despite their respective ailments, the Splash Brothers led the Warriors in scoring with 25 for Thompson and 23 for Curry.

Thompson, a bag of ice attached to the back of his left thigh, congratulated his teammates as they came off the floor. He appeared to injure himself on a three-point attempt that saw him do the near-splits when he landed awkwardly.

Looney had zero points in 10 minutes. Iguodala recovered from running into the seven-foot-one 255-pound Gasol and finished with eight points — including the three-point dagger that put Golden State ahead 109-104 with 5.9 seconds remaining.

“He’s just got a lot of experience, he’s done everything in his career,” Kerr said when asked about Iguodala’s ability to step up on the big stage. “He’s been in the Olympics, he’s won three rings, he’s been an all-star, he knows how to play, one of the smartest players I’ve ever been around.

“I think he sensed that we needed his production in that second half and he came alive.”

Iguodala was drafted ninth overall in 2004, one pick after the Raptors’ ill-fated selection of Brazilian Rafael Araujo.

Others stepped up for Golden State including DeMarcus Cousins. Just back from a quad injury following his comeback from a long-term Achilles tendon injury, the big man contributed 11 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in 27 minutes. Cousins returned to the starting lineup in Game 2 after coming off the bench in the series opener.

“He feels good in there right now and we have a couple days before Game 3, so we do feel confident that we can continue to get good minutes from him,” said Kerr. “We’re going to need them, obviously, with all these injuries.”

Quinn Cook, the 2016 G League rookie of the year, contributed nine points with three three-pointers. Andrew Bogut, the little-used Australian big man, had six points in seven minutes as the bench contributed 25 points.

“You need your bench, no matter what, but in particular when you’ve got a lot of injuries.” said Kerr. So we’ll just continue to go to those guys and trust them, and they have proven that they can really help us.”

Game 3 goes Wednesday in Oakland, Calif., giving the Warriors some time to heal.

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Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press