Ex-Warriors player makes interesting claim about 2019 Toronto Raptors
The 2019 Toronto Raptors might be NBA champions, but it seems like their former opponents are still looking to place an asterisk next to that title.
Jordan Bell, who played parts of three seasons with the Golden State Warriors, spoke this week about the 2019 NBA Finals matchup between the two teams.
Bell, who currently plays for the Indiana Mad Ants of the NBA GSo League, joined former NBA player Theo Pinson on the Run Your Race podcast on Tidal League and had plenty of thoughts on the series in which Toronto defeated Golden State in six games.
“If everybody is healthy, we win. I think everybody in the world knows that,” Bell said.
“If everybody is healthy we win. I think everybody in the world knows that.”
– Jordan Bell
Would a healthy Warriors team beat the Raptors in the 2019 NBA Finals? 🤔
(Via: Run Your Race) pic.twitter.com/iR3II8cTKh
— Tidal League (@TidalLeague) January 20, 2024
Bell appeared for a total of 25 minutes across four games in the 2019 Finals, where he averaged 1.5 points, 1.3 rebounds, and 0.5 blocks.
The Warriors suffered a series of catastrophic injuries during the 2019 playoffs, losing Kevin Durant due to a right calf injury in the second round, followed by an Achilles injury in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.
Meanwhile, Klay Thompson also suffered an ACL tear in the series-clinching Game 6 for Toronto. Both Thompson and Durant missed the entirety of the 2019-20 season while rehabbing their injuries, with Thompson also sitting out the first part of the 2021-22 season.
But in addition to the injuries, Bell also felt that the playoff-experienced Warriors — who were in their fifth-straight NBA Finals — would’ve been able to outlast Toronto had the series been pushed to a seventh game.
“They’d never been to a Game 7,” he said, which Bell was quickly corrected on, given that the Raptors had beaten the Philadelphia 76ers in the second round of the playoffs that year, securing the win with Kawhi Leonard’s iconic buzzer beater.
The full podcast is available below: