With their 123-109 victory in Game 3, the Toronto Raptors now lead the two-time defending champion Golden State Warriors 2-1 in the 2019 NBA finals.
The star players were good.
After a difficult Game 2, Kyle Lowry had a strong bounce-back game, recording 23 points and nine assists.
Pascal Siakam continued his unique brand of brilliance in an 18-point, nine-rebound and six-assist performance, recording a plus-22 net rating for the game.
Kawhi Leonard, the man apparently immune to the concept of variance in this postseason, was again unstoppable on his way to the rim, putting up 30 points, seven rebounds and six assists of his own.
Those are not what swung the game for the Raptors, though. This time, it was the other guys.
Contrast in production from rotation players
In our preview of the important match-ups in this series back before it started, we explored whether the respective depth of each team's line-up would prove significantly influential. It was indisputable in Game 3 that the answer was yes.
The Warriors are dealing with a myriad of injuries. Klay Thompson was absent for this game, Kevin Durant remains out indefinitely, Kevon Looney is out for the rest of the season, and Andre Iguodala is distinctly hobbled.
By contrast, the Raptors, down only OG Anunoby from their playing rotation, had most of their full contingent available, especially offensively. That is what proved to be the difference in Game 3.
With six three-point shots made, starting shooting guard Danny Green brought the big-time NBA Finals experience the team always hoped he would.
Fred VanVleet's implausible and spectacular resurgence continued with 11 points and three steals off the bench, including one absolute dagger; the same player who went on a 6-40 shooting slump over a nine-game stretch earlier in the playoffs is now the fearless shot-maker, and an applier of unrelenting pressure that offers no respite whenever he checks into the game.
Although a couple of uncalled yet clear goaltends were among them, Serge Ibaka's six blocks swung a game-changing number of possessions in Toronto's favour.
A short-handed Warriors team could not get such contributions from their role players. DeMarcus Cousins, so crucial in Game 2, was a non-factor in this one. Alfonzo McKinnie and Jonas Jerebko are too marginal as shot-making talents to be reliable. Shaun Livingston has only twelve feet of range and even then requires setting up.
The game was only competitive due to the superlative individual efforts of Stephen Curry, whose 47-point, eight-rebound and seven-assist effort will go down as one of the best NBA Finals losing performances ever.
However, therein lies the overarching narrative of the series thus far. In putting together what is when at full health such a ridiculous starting line-up, the Warriors have hit the limits of the Big Four model.
Warriors' tale of woe
Golden State's ability to sign Kevin Durant back in 2016 was achieved through a unique combination of factors, the two most significant of which were the one-time enormous salary cap spike that summer brought about by new TV revenues, and the fact that Curry was still hugely underpaid on a contract he signed when he was merely a good player with a bad ankle.
Golden State were able to add a superstar to an already historic team, and still put together good benches, because financial circumstances permitted it.
Now, they don't. And combined with the ageing of Iguodala, Livingston and Andrew Bogut, they are finding themselves having to nibble around the edges, charged with the enormous task of finding talent for dirt cheap that somehow also coheres with their needs both offensively and defensively.
In McKinnie, Looney and Quinn Cook, they have had some success at this. Yet in comparison to what Toronto are putting forward in the shorter-yet-stronger lower half of their rotation, the Warriors have been found wanting on both ends of the court. Curry can only carry them on one.
It is of course true that in missing both Thompson and Durant for this game, Golden State have been the victims of an extremely bad run of injury luck; no one can overcome losing that much. This NBA Finals, as much as any other one ever, is going to be determined by injuries. Yet NBA basketball these days is an era in which the importance of role players is heightened, even when at good health.
Unlike many team sports, the fact that only five players are on the court at any given time means that the potential impact of any individual is magnified in basketball. With this in mind, as opposed to, say, baseball, individuals can carry teams for stretches, or at least could historically.
The game has changed
The modern game, however, is faster than it has been for a generation. This regular season, the average pace factor across every NBA team was an even 100.0, the first time in 30 years it had surpassed the triple-digit mark; between 1994 and 2013, the highest annual mark was a mere 93.1. Additionally, the 30 NBA teams combined to average 111 points per game this season, the highest mark recorded in any season since the 1970-71 campaign, back in a time when defensive nuance did not exist.
In summation, today's NBA is faster, more skilled and higher standard than it was even 10 or 20 years ago. It is thus harder for any individual performance to win a game.
There are more possessions now, more things to do, more areas of a court to cover. Curry's performance last night somewhat proved this, as does LeBron James' 3-6 all-time record in NBA Finals appearances; when the game is this fast and this good, players cannot simply will their way to victory in the half-court like they could in the days of Jordan, Kobe or Duncan. Role players have always mattered hugely, yet they matter more now, because there are so many more possessions to fill.
The defensive nuance that is the lynchpin of the modern game, and that is being exceptionally well demonstrated right now by the Raptors, places a greater onus on non-star players to capitalise on the opportunities defenses give them. Superstar talent still of course cannot be stopped, and the removal of hand-checking some years ago now firmly confirmed that no one wants that.
Yet due to the advent of better film technologies, capturable data points and an advanced knowledge base, it is far more possible to devise intricate defensive schemes, which can at least inhibit superstar players and send them to areas of the court they would prefer not to be in. Offensively, role players need to be able to hit the resultant shots; defensively, they need to be able to defend within these schematics and play the appropriate help when needed.
What this all boils down to is that while teams can still get to the latter stages of the postseason due to the individual brilliance of their superstars, they can only win if the rest of the team hit shots and play good, disciplined help defense. Which is exactly what Green, VanVleet and Ibaka just did.
It's worked before - can it work again?
Toronto used the same formula to conquer the Milwaukee Bucks. They did not stop Giannis Antetokounmpo; instead, they used excellent scouting and defensive principles to slow him, forcing the other Bucks to beat them, and then won when they couldn't. They employed the same tactics here in Game 3, and led the whole way because the shortened Warriors bench in the Big Four era simply could not overcome what they were missing through injury.
Three games into this series, we still do not know which of these two teams is best, because we have still only seen the best of one of them. But what we do know is that this Raptors team, with the vital contributions of its role players, is far too good for Golden State to be anything at less than their best.
Game 4 takes place in Oakland in the early hours of Saturday morning (2am) live on Sky Sports Arena.