Toronto — Pascal Siakam scored a playoff career-high 32 points and the Toronto Raptors won the first NBA Finals game played outside the U.S., beating the Golden State Warriors 118-109 on Thursday night.
The Raptors hardly looked like newcomers to the NBA's biggest stage, controlling the action most of the way against a Golden State team making its fifth straight NBA Finals appearance.
Kawhi Leonard added 23 points and Marc Gasol had 20 for the Raptors, fueled by a crowd that couldn't wait for a party 24 years in the making.
"I think they were into it and that's the way it should be, man," Raptors coach Nick Nurse said. "That's what home court is, and our fans deserve a bunch of credit for being a big part of that."
Stephen Curry scored 34 points and Klay Thompson had 21 for the Warriors, who had won all four Game 1s in the NBA Finals the last four years. All those had come at home, but this time Golden State doesn't have home-court — or home country — advantage.
Game 2 is Sunday night in Toronto, which was hosting an NBA Finals game for the first time since entering the league as an expansion team in 1995.
All four of the Warriors' previous Finals were against Le-Bron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, and they struggled to figure out a new opponent. Toronto shot 50.6 percent from the field and the Warriors never found an answer for Siakam.
"I thought we made a good effort in the second half, got back in the game. Our guys did some good things, but made too many mistakes to actually go ahead and win the game," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.
