NBA Finals are offering so much more than good basketball

The main plotline in the NBA Finals is good enough to carry the story: a franchise from Canada used to playoff heartbreak making its first championship series trip after going all-in with a risk-reward superstar trade vs. the unfair dynasty everyone has penciled in for its fourth title in five years.

And the plucky Raptors are winning two games to one! There's no need for more.

But NBA, it seems, stands for Never Be Average. The league has also graced us with a multitude of subplots that make these finals — the first since 2010 without LeBron James — somehow just as interesting as any in recent memory.

In no particular order:

• Will Klay Thompson and/or Kevin Durant play in Game 4? The Warriors entered the finals as heavy favorites even with Durant — one of the five best players in the NBA — sidelined with a calf injury. Thompson, who might be even more valuable to his team than Durant, then missed Game 3 with a hamstring injury.

Turns out that if you take two of the NBA's best players off the best team, it has detrimental results. Who knew?

The Warriors expect to get Thompson back for Game 4 on Friday. Coach Steve Kerr held out no hope Thursday that Durant would play Friday after Durant didn't go through with a planned scrimmage.

Leonard, the aforementioned risk-reward superstar acquired last offseason from the Spurs, can join whatever team he wants next month. But the Raptors are making the decision hard on him by creeping within two games of an NBA title and fueling a countrywide P.R. campaign to get him to stay. Without him, the Raptors would fall quickly in the East pecking order.

With the Warriors, Durant is almost a luxury. Remember, Golden State had already won an NBA title and set the league record with 73 regular-season victories in back-go-back seasons before Durant even arrived. If he vanishes after this year, the Warriors … will be just fine!

• Kyle Lowry vs. the Warriors team investor: Raptors guard Kyle Lowry went sprawling into the crowd during Toronto's Game 3 win at Golden State on Wednesday, where he was shoved by a fan in the expensive seats.

Lowry took offense, as he should have, telling ESPN later: "He had no reason to touch me. He had no reason to reach over two seats and then say some vulgar language to me. There's no place for people like that in our league. Hopefully, he never comes back to an NBA game."

Turns out it wasn't just a fan. It was a Warriors investor named Mark Stevens. He was ejected from the game, and the NBA took it quite a bit further than that with an announcement Thursday: "A team representative must be held to the highest possible standard, and the conduct of Golden State Warriors investor Mark Stevens last night was beyond unacceptable and has no place in our league. As the review of this matter continues, Mr. Stevens will not be permitted to attend NBA games."