No question that one big story line locally for this matchup is whether it’s the last time the Warriors play in Oakland’s Oracle Arena, which opened in 1966 and has been the home of the Dubs for the most part since 1971-72. The arena’s first tenants were the California Seals of the Western Hockey League (Seals eventually became an NHL team for nearly a decade).

Oracle is the oldest venue in the NBA, beating New York’s Madison Square Garden by two years. While the arena will still be around and host special events, etc., the Warriors are moving across the bay next season to a billion-dollar arena in San Francisco. Obviously, there’s still the possibility that Game 6 is played at Oracle and that would be it.

NBA Point Spread and Betting Analysis

Golden State is 2-1 in Games 4s this postseason, winning in Round 1 at the Clippers, losing in the conference semifinals in Houston, and sweeping out the Trail Blazers in Portland in the West Finals. The Dubs had home-court advantage in all those series but don’t in the NBA Finals.

Toronto is unbeaten in Game 4s, winning a blowout in Orlando in the first round, by five in Philadelphia in the conference semifinals and a 120-102 thumping of the visiting Bucks in the East Finals. The wins in the latter two series tied them 2-2.

On the updated Sports Interaction odds to win the NBA title, the Raptors are -152 and Warriors -111.

Toronto Raptors

One doesn’t want to say the Raptors WEREN’T going to win this series without a victory in Game 3 on Wednesday night, but it sure was tough to imagine considering the Warriors were without All-Stars Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson and both seemed likely to return in Game 4. You can’t lose to a Warriors team missing those two guys (and Kevon Looney) and go down 2-1. Toronto didn’t, largely winning wire-to-wire in a 123-109 victory.

Every time the Warriors got the crowd involved with a mini-run, Kawhi Leonard or Danny Green or Kyle Lowry or Fred VanVleet would hit a big shot to keep the lead comfortable. Green was great in hitting 6-for-10 from deep. Lowry had five three-pointers and 23 points. If someone can have a relatively quiet 30 points, Leonard did. VanVleet had 11 off the bench. Serge Ibaka was a defensive menace with six blocks. A true team effort.

The Raptors became just the third team in Finals history to shoot 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from deep and 90 percent from the free-throw line.

Golden State Warriors

On the U.S. telecast Wednesday, ABC/ESPN’s Jeff Van Gundy said the Warriors as constructed in Game 3 wouldn’t have made the Western Conference playoffs. He’s probably right. With Durant and Thompson (and to a much lesser extent Looney) out, Steph Curry was spectacular with a playoff career-high 47 points. He also took a whopping 31 shots, only two fewer than the rest of the starters. Other Warriors were left open all night and just couldn’t consistently hit jumpers.

Centre DeMarcus Cousins, so good in Game 2, looked tired or injured or both, and was a non-factor in shooting 1-for-7 with three turnovers. It’s likely, though, that Thompson returns from his hamstring injury on Friday as he was active in Game 3. We think Durant finally plays in this series, too, as the Dubs can’t afford to go down 3-1 heading back to Toronto. It’s all hands on deck.