It suddenly made sense to start it at nine o’clock.
After waiting most of Thursday for the start of Game 1 of Raptors-Warriors in the NBA Finals, the Scotiabank Arena was filled in a way it has never quite been before. Prior to tip-off — well prior — a rollicking crowd was ready to go for warmups, the anthems, the starting lineups, the entire pre-game ritual. And why not? Toronto hadn’t just waited all day for this moment, they’d waited 24 years.
But the question to the crowd was the same posed to the Raptors: could they keep up this level of energy and focus against an all-out assault from the two-time defending champion Warriors?