2018–19 Golden State Warriors season
The 2018–19 Golden State Warriors season was the 73rd season of the franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA), and its 57th in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Warriors entered the season as the two-time defending NBA champions, having won back-to-back NBA championships. The Warriors attempted their first "three-peat" in franchise history, but were defeated by the Toronto Raptors in the 2019 NBA Finals. This was the Warriors' final season at Oracle Arena in Oakland, before moving to the new Chase Center in San Francisco, beginning with the 2019–20 NBA season. The Warriors won the Pacific Division title and Western Conference Championship for the fifth consecutive season. They finished with the best record in the Western Conference, with a record of 57–25. Golden State made the playoffs for the seventh consecutive season, a new franchise record. The previous record was six, in the team's first six years of existence between 1947 and 1952. Golden State recorded 50 wins for the sixth consecutive season, a franchise record. In the postseason, the Warriors defeated the Los Angeles Clippers 4–2 in the first round, the Houston Rockets 4–2 in the Western Conference Semi-finals, and swept the Portland Trail Blazers 4–0 in the Western Conference finals. The Warriors' run ended in the NBA Finals, where they lost 4–2 to the Toronto Raptors. Golden State made their fifth consecutive Finals appearance and are the second team in NBA history to achieve this feat after the Boston Celtics made ten straight between 1957–1966. The Warriors playoff run was riddled with injuries, with DeMarcus Cousins, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala, Klay Thompson, and Kevon Looney all missing a combined total of 26 games.
Klay Thompson set an NBA record for most three-pointers made in a game with fourteen.
Stephen Curry set the all-time NBA record for most three-pointers made in the playoffs with 470.
Draymond Green has the most triple-doubles in franchise history, with 22 in the regular season and 10 in the postseason.
The 2019 NBA Finals was the championship series of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) 2018–19 season and conclusion of the season's playoffs. In the best-of-seven playoff series held from May 30 through June 13, 2019, the Eastern Conference champion Toronto Raptors defeated the two-time defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors, 4–2, earning the franchise its first NBA championship as well as the first win by an NBA team based outside the United States. Acquired by the Raptors via a trade during the off-season, Kawhi Leonard was named the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) for the second time in his career.
Game 2 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, which Golden State won
Kawhi Leonard shooting a free throw in Game 2
Toronto Raptors commentary team members Matt Devlin and Jack Armstrong in the Scotiabank Arena during Game 2; note the advertisement of YouTube TV (despite its lack of legal availability there at the time) behind the announcers
Toronto's Nathan Phillips Square on June 17, 2019, with crowds surrounding the Toronto Sign during the victory parade