Open this photo in gallery Raptors forward Kawhi Leonard celebrates his last-second basket with teammates at the end of Game 7 on Sunday. Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press Do you believe in exorcisms? Because on Sunday night, Kawhi Leonard performed the first one broadcast live on sports cable. His buzzer-beating, game-winning shot at the end of regulation of Game 7 – an astounding first of those in NBA history – connected back to 2001. Story continues below advertisement Vince Carter. Eastern Conference semi-final. Toronto against Philadelphia. Last second in-bounds. Carter taking a corner jumper that rimmed out. Eighteen years later, Leonard found himself in a nearly identical situation. Same scenario; different result; very different player. Leonard’s buzzer-beater pushes Raptors past 76ers in Game 7 for the ages Once again, Sunday night’s Raptors’ 92-90 win over the 76ers was a Leonard Production. He had 13 of the team’s final 15 points. With his teammates ice cold, Leonard put up more bullets than a Gatling gun. “He took 39 shots,” losing coach Brett Brown said afterward, reading the stats sheet and shaking his head. “Wow.” “I didn’t want to leave any shots in my mind,” Leonard said. “I would’ve had to wait five months for another shot." It’s the last one no one will forget. It was the bat flip for Canadian basketball. Tie game. Four seconds remaining. Everyone knew the ball was getting in-bounded to Leonard. It got in-bounded to Leonard. He plotted an arcing course toward the corner – much like Carter did – turned and took a half-blind shot with all seven feet of Joel Embiid directly in his face. Story continues below advertisement The ball landed on the rim like a Plinko chip. It took four bounces – lasting nearly three full seconds – before it rolled in. Open this photo in gallery Kawhi Leonard releases his game-winning shot in the final second of Game 7 on Sunday. Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press In the celebrations that followed, Leonard showed a level of emotion – pogo-ing around, shrieking – that is completely new in this city. He’s already won an NBA championship. It looked as though this moment was up there with that. "I’m a guy who acts like I’ve been there before,” Leonard said. “I’ve never been in that situation … So I just showed emotion. And it was great.” It sounded as flat as it read. Leonard’s internal CPU had returned to its usual public, low-power mode. Leonard was already the best Raptor in history. He is rapidly becoming the team’s only truly legendary player. This is a good moment to step back and applaud not only the team’s performance, but the enormous gamble that made it possible. Story continues below advertisement Too few major risks are taken in pro sports. Because taking one is a terrible idea for a team executive. The easier path is plugging away in unambitious safety for years until you either get lucky or someone fires you. Then you do the same thing again elsewhere. Though it looks golden now, the Leonard trade could have been an epic disaster. No one from the Raptors discussed it with him beforehand. After he’d missed nearly an entire season with injury, they couldn’t know for sure that Leonard was or would ever be fully healthy. He might’ve shown up anywhere from hurt or surly to active non-participant. Maybe all three. He might not have shown up at all. That was all possible. Raptors president Masai Ujiri may have the most secure position in pro sports. He didn’t need to do this. Had it gone totally wrong, it might have been the one thing that could put his job in jeopardy. But a great chance was taken in any case. And it worked. During these playoffs, Leonard is forcing a reconsideration of how a basketball season works. It used to be you tried, and then in April you tried a little harder. Story continues below advertisement Leonard’s new way of doing things is part-timing most of the year, then doing your work and everyone else’s during the postseason. Regardless of how this turns out, he is already the best playoff performer in Toronto’s history. Less than a year in, he’s legendary in this town. As a result, a franchise that’s been around for a quarter century – most of that miserable trending toward embarrassing – is now an NBA big shot. Toronto will begin its conference final against the Milwaukee Bucks – the first all-around powerhouse the Raptors have yet faced – on Wednesday night in Wisconsin. After that the Western Conference’s Golden State Warriors? Possibly without an injured Kevin Durant? Or a depleted one? This is where it gets hard not to start dreaming. The Raptors haven’t won anything yet, but they have satisfied the basic requirements. Things that were still questions a few hours ago have answers. Story continues below advertisement Betting the shop on Leonard was the right thing to do. Betting a slice of the shop on Marc Gasol was also correct. Taking a flyer on career assistant Nick Nurse flew. Keeping faith with Kyle Lowry was smart, as well as unavoidable. Nobody was getting fired however this turned out, but now everyone can get comfortable. The same can’t be said for Philadelphia. The 76ers are now the team the Raptors would have been had the Leonard trade been a total bust. Everybody in Philadelphia is getting fired. A once bright future has dimmed. People will fall out of love with Embiid and Ben Simmons, two bright young things who sleepwalked through most of the series. The pain is just beginning. That’s how close the margins are in the NBA. Win a couple, everyone in the organization from the top man down to the guy in the video room is a genius. Lose a couple, you get a handkerchief and a cigarette and told to show up for your postseason exit interview at dawn. In other years, this win would qualify as a massive success. This year, it’s a sign post. It’s fun for a moment and then on to the next. Story continues below advertisement<doc-sep>Kawhi Leonard has been the heart and soul of the Toronto Raptors for nearly every game of the 2019 NBA playoffs. Game 7 was nothing new as Leonard drilled a buzzer-beater to send the Raptors to the Eastern Conference finals. The dramatic shot hit the rim at least four times, just seconds after Jimmy Butler tied the game at 90. Leonard led all scorers with 41 points on 16-of-39 shooting from the floor. Unlike recent games, however, where Leonard received little to no help from his teammates, Serge Ibaka was a key piece of Toronto's win. Averaging just seven points this series entering Game 7, Ibaka finished with 17 points and three triples. MORE: Watch 76ers vs. Raptors live with fuboTV (7-day free trial) One of the biggest factors in the Raptors' win was their dominant effort on the offensive glass. Toronto had 16 offensive rebounds to Philadelphia's five, leading to a 24-shot advantage for the Raptors. Marc Gasol and Pascal Siakam both finished with 11 rebounds. Joel Embiid led Philadelphia with 21 points and 11 boards but shot just 33 percent. Every Sixers starter finished with at least 13 points. Butler had 16 after entering the fourth quarter with just six points, as he dealt with apparent ankle pain. Toronto meets Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference finals on Wednesday night. The Bucks should be feeling fresh with a full week of rest after beating Boston in five games. Sporting News tracked live scoring updates and highlights from Game 7 between the 76ers and Raptors. Check out the updates below. 76ers vs. Raptors: Live score, updates from Game 7 (All times Eastern) Final: Raptors 92, 76ers 90 9:32 p.m.: KAWHI. Drills a buzzer-beater to send Toronto to the Eastern Conference finals. 9:31 p.m.: Butler speeds down the court for a transition layup to tie the game with four seconds. ARE YOU KIDDING ME JIMMY pic.twitter.com/6h6ae4l3VC — Dime (@DimeUPROXX) May 13, 2019 9:29 p.m.: Embiid hit two free throws to trim the lead to one with 12.1 seconds. 9:25 p.m.: Timeout Toronto with the Raptors up by 3 and 33 seconds left. Offensive rebounds will be the end of Philadelphia. 9:21 p.m.: Lowry with a steal, Siakam with the finish. Its four-point Toronto lead with 1:14 to go. 9:20 p.m.: Leonard is unstoppable. Nails a pull-up jumper. Only he has scored for Toronto in the last five minutes. 9:15 p.m.: Philadelphia calls a timeout with the score tied at 85, 3:13 remaining. Leonard leads all scorers with 36 points. 9:07 p.m.: Leonard make a shot falling away from the basket as he's fouled. He has Toronto's last eight points. Raptors lead by five with 4:34 left. GAME 7 KAWHI pic.twitter.com/0QOD7PH2Pz — Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) May 13, 2019 9:02 p.m.: Embiid knocks down a huge 3 to give Philadelphia a one-point lead with 7:30 to play. 8:58 p.m.: Sharpshooter Serge for his third 3. 8:54 p.m.: Tobias Harris scores first, but Marc Gasol answers with his first 3 of the night. End of third quarter: Raptors 67, 76ers 64 8:49 p.m.: Toronto ends the quarter on a 17-7 run. Leonard has 26 points, but it's been an inefficient night. The Raptors' superstar is just 10-of-30 from the field. 8:45 p.m.: Crazy transition block by Embiid, but Ibaka recovers the ball and scores to give the Raptors a lead. It's a 13-4 Toronto run. Things getting wild in Toronto pic.twitter.com/ZonZT3zOoW — Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) May 13, 2019 8:42 p.m.: Leonard hits a 3 after two straight Raptors offensive rebounds. 8:38 p.m.: Ibaka finally ends the 16-0 Philadelphia run. 76ers lead 57-52 with 4:20 left in the third. 8:36 p.m.: J.J. Reddick hits a 3 to build the run to 14-0 and give Philadelhpia its largest lead of the night (5). Toronto has missed 10 straight shots. 8:30 p.m.: Philly responds with an 10-0 run of its own, and just like that the 76ers have a one-point lead. 8:27 p.m.: 6-1 spurt by the Raptors to start the third quarter forces an early Philadelphia timeout. Embiid is just 2-of-11 with seven points. 8:23 p.m.: Leonard opens up the half with a jumper. Halftime: Raptors 44, 76ers 40 8:03 p.m.: The Raptors finish the half on an 11-3 run over the final 3:43. Leonard and Tobias Harris are the lone players in double figures with 15 and 10 points respectively. Lowry has been in some noticeable discomfort with his hand. Halftime in GAME 7 on @NBAonTNT ! #WeTheNorth 44 #PhilaUnite 40 Kawhi Leonard: 15 PTS Pascal Siakam: 9 PTS, 7 REB Tobias Harris: 10 PTS, 6 REB Ben Simmons: 8 PTS, 4 REB, 2 BLK pic.twitter.com/T7yxj2VWn6 — NBA (@NBA) May 13, 2019 7:57 p.m.: Ibaka wants to be taken seriously from 3. He hits hit second of the night to answer a Sixers' 3. 7:52 p.m.: James Ennis with a tough finish at the rim to give Philly its second one-point lead of the night. 4:26 to go in the half. 7:44 p.m.: Official word is a sprained thumb on Lowry. He's available to play. 7:38 p.m.: Lowry goes to the locker room as Leonard converts on an and-1. He slams home a dunk moments later to give Toronto a 29-21 lead. 7:34 p.m.: Kyle Lowry walks over to the bench holding his left thumb in pain. 7:33 p.m.: Serge Ibaka makes the first 3 of the night for Toronto and also his first of the entire series. End of first quarter: Raptors 18, 76ers 13 7:29 p.m.: Not the prettiest of basketball to start. Teams are a combined 10-of-43. The leading team at the end of the first quarter has gone on to win all six game this series. 7:27 p.m.: Toronto is killing Philadelphia on the boards. Ibaka records the Raptors' fifth offensive rebound of the night. The Sixers has none. 7:17 p.m.: Two transition dunks in a row by Leonard and Danny Green. It's an 8-0 run by the Raptors, forcing a Philly timeout. 7:12 p.m.: These two teams are slowly setting the game of basketball back several decades. They are a combined 4-of-24 shooting midway through the first. 11 possessions each. It's 6-3.<doc-sep>The ball went up. Kawhi Leonard had struggled all night, right from the start. On a night where Game 7 pressure compressed so many nerves, it happened to Kawhi, too. He missed shots, but never stopped taking them, because he knew this could be his last game of the season. It had been hard. Games like these should be hard. And thanks to Kawhi and Kyle Lowry and some snarling defence, the Toronto Raptors had clawed to a tie with 4.2 seconds left, and Kawhi had the ball and was dribbling right, but needed space. He lost Ben Simmons but picked up Joel Embiid, the giant, a defensive monster unlike any other. All night, the Raptors saw the seven-foot-two Embiid and ran the other way. Kawhi had no choice. He hit a key three in Game 4 over Embiid. But he needed room to shoot, and it wasn’t there. So Leonard was running out of road, but he knew where the road led. He picked up the ball after four dribbles and he shot the ball from the right corner, inside the three-point line, with Embiid flying at him. He sent it so high; he had to, because Embiid was right there. He ran calculations the whole time. He probably wasn’t thinking that 18 years earlier, Vince Carter had a shot to beat Philadelphia in Game 7 before facing Milwaukee, and he missed. A lot of other people might have been, though. Read more: The first Raptors-Sixers Game 7 still resonates 18 years later Relentless Raptors win Game 7 battle worthy of the occasion Raptors and Sixers will go as far as stars take them in Game 7 “We ran a similar play during the Magic series and I ended up just catch-and-shooting the ball, it was probably like three seconds,” said Leonard. “So I just remembered that moment and knowing I had time, at least, to pump-fake or take a dribble … I ended up catching it and just trying to get to a space so I could get a shot off. Embiid was guarding me. He’s taller, longer than me. So, ended up finding a spot that I like, that I work on, ended up getting to the spot. Then I just knew I had to shoot it high.” This time the ball hit the rim and bounced, high. It bounced again, and everything stopped. Everyone. Everything. Bounce. Bounce. “From that angle where we were at, it didn’t look like it was going in at all at first,” said Raptors guard Fred VanVleet. “It looked like it was a little to the left. Once it sat on the rim for a second, we started to wait for it to just drop. Once it hit the rim once and twice it was like, ‘This is Kawhi. This is gonna fall.’” Kawhi needed to lean back, calculate, get the ball over the monster. He thought about a three-pointer a few possessions earlier that was short; he had been short a lot. He doesn’t arc the ball much, usually. This arc gave the ball its soft landing. The ball went up. It bounced. “I really felt when it hit the rim that it was going to end up going in,” said 76ers coach Brett Brown. “When it hits at that angle and goes kind of straight up, you feel there is chance. “It took that shot to end our season.” He had such a tough night. So many players did. At the start nobody could make a shot, and while the Raptors were playing ferocious defence, truly ferocious, they weren’t hitting open shots. Even Kawhi missed open threes early. He missed all over. Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... And halfway through the third quarter Philadelphia was grabbing control of the game, and on a 16-0 run, and Kawhi wasn’t looking at his teammates. He wasn’t trusting the pass. He hadn’t taken more than 24 shots in a Toronto playoff game, but was 8-for-25 and missing. Someone had to shoot, really. Serge Ibaka was having a great night, a confident night, but other than him, nobody wanted the ball the way Kawhi did. Kyle Lowry pulled them out of the dive in the third quarter with four or five of those plays that only really Kyle Lowry makes despite spraining his left thumb; the team defence down the stretch was ferocious, truly elite, and the Sixers only scored one basket in the final 3:29. They had completed a four-point play from J.J. Redick, and Kawhi made a three in response nearly two minutes later. But he missed twice more down the stretch, and missed a free throw that let Jimmy Butler tie it with 4.2 seconds left. Tie game, Kawhi with the ball, and Embiid was in the air. Kawhi was almost on the floor as he watched the ball bounce; when it dropped the famously stoic superstar erupted along with everyone in the building, screaming, roaring. Embiid left the floor in tears. Lowry, who has been here for so long, had to hold them back. Before the game, a member of the Sixers organization said, “It’s up to the basketball gods, now.” Yeah. Kawhi finished 16-for-39 from the field for 41 points. He had 26 points on 10-of-30 shooting in the first three quarters, and scored 15 of Toronto’s 25 on 6-of-9 shooting in the fourth. It was the first buzzer-beater to win a Game 7 in NBA history, and Toronto beat Philadelphia in Game 7, 92-90. In 2001, Toronto lost 88-87. As Mark Twain is sometimes said to have said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” “Oh man,” said Ibaka, who had 17 points and eight rebounds. “That was incredible, man. I don’t know what to say. You know, I used to play with guys like Russell (Westbrook) and (Kevin Durant) so I saw a lot of crazy shots, but this one tonight? Oof! In the moment too? Whew. This one was unbelievable. I don’t know if you saw the video.<doc-sep>What would a wild finish to an NBA playoff game be without a bit of drama? It appears there may be some chatter about a missed call after the Toronto Raptors defeated the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 7 of their second-round matchup. Just before Kawhi Leonard hit a wild fadeaway game-winner over Sixers center Joel Embiid, a slow-mo version of the play seems to show the Raptors star travel while receiving the inbounds pass. West Coast Flyers offered up the video and also pointed to the possible travel, so you can decide for yourself. Obviously, this does appear to show Leonard take multiple steps before beginning to dribble, but there’s virtually no chance officials would call that in this spot. Whether or not it’s something that should have been whistled is another story (and a fair argument) which could be a popular topic among Sixers fans after the brutal loss. Kawhi Leonard’s Game-Winning Shot While the travel topic may be worth discussing, there’s nothing that will be changed about the outcome. Beyond that, the ending to Game 7 was a memorable one and for Raptors fans, a moment they’ll surely never forget. The shot which Leonard made at the buzzer on Sunday hit virtually every part of the rim and rivaled Damian Lillard’s clutch 37-foot game-winner for the best moment of the playoffs. The Render showed the scene, which featured virtually the entire arena going silent for a brief second before the jumper finally fell through. Kawhi's game 7 buzzer beater pic.twitter.com/gvj8eUv9Hp — The Render (@TheRenderNBA) May 13, 2019 This capped off an impressive first two rounds for the Raptors star, who averaged 27.8 points, 6.6 rebounds and 3.0 assists while shooting 56.6 percent from the field in five games against the Orlando Magic. He followed that up by averaging 34.7 points, 9.9 rebounds and 4.0 assists in seven games against the Sixers while continuing his red-hot shooting by hitting 54.0 percent of his attempts. Raptors to Face Bucks in Eastern Conference Finals After the Raptors got all they could handle in this series from the Sixers, it sets up a date with the Milwaukee Bucks and possible league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. A trip to the NBA Finals is on the line, where the winner will face whichever team advances from the West in the Golden State Warriors and Portland Trail Blazers. The Bucks hold homecourt advantage over the Raptors in this series, thanks to their 60-22 regular-season record. While the Raptors finished 58-24, they’ll be on the road in Game 1 which is slated for Wednesday, May 15 at 8:30 p.m. ET on TNT. As impressive as Leonard and company have been throughout the playoffs, the Bucks will be tough to beat. They rolled through their first-round matchup against the Detroit Pistons with a clean sweep and after losing Game 1 to the Boston Celtics, reeled off four-straight wins to advance. Milwaukee has won seven of their nine playoff games by double-digits with only the one loss along the way. Regardless, the Raptors won’t be an easy out, and that series should be enjoyable to watch. READ NEXT: WATCH: Drake Uses Curse to Help Raptors, Wears Sixers Gear for Game 7<doc-sep>
Leonard exorcises Raptor demons with historic Game 7 winner Poetic.That’s the first thing that came to mind in the immediate aftermath of watching Kawhi Leonard hit a shot you had to see to believe. And if you saw it, you aren’t likely to forget it. Josh Lewenberg TSN Raptors Reporter Follow|Archive TORONTO – Poetic. That’s the first thing that came to mind in the immediate aftermath of watching Kawhi Leonard hit a shot you had to see to believe. And if you saw it, you aren’t likely to forget it. With four seconds remaining in a series-deciding Game 7 between the Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers, the score tied at 90 apiece, Leonard caught the ball off an inbounds pass from Marc Gasol. The Raptors’ forward drove right, past 76ers all-star Ben Simmons and into Philadelphia’s other all-star Joel Embiid, who came over to help. There was less than a second left on the clock when Leonard released the ball over the outstretched arm of the seven-foot Embiid. The sell-out crowd at Scotiabank Arena was on its feet and there was a momentary hush in the building as Leonard crouched by his team’s bench waiting to see if the shot would fall. The ball hit front rim and bounced. Then it bounced again. It bounced four times before it fell. “I think at first a lot of us were like, ‘Ah, it doesn’t look too good’,” said Raptors guard Danny Green, a long-time teammate of Leonard’s. “Then it got one bounce and it was like, ‘OK.’ And then the second bounce it was ‘Oh s---, we might have a chance here.’ Once it went in I think everyone was just ridiculously excited. The whole building. I think they’re still yelling out there.” “It was just like a movie moment where you’re waiting for the ball to go down,” said Fred VanVleet, who had a front-row seat on the bench. “Just a special moment.” “It was cool, all the fans, the team, everybody around, it was crazy,” Kyle Lowry said. “It was a good emotional moment for everybody to be there and just kind of a sigh of relief and enjoyment - like a 'phew!' It was great. It was a pretty awesome moment.” Lowry was standing in the opposite corner at the time, but was somehow one of the first Raptors players to make it over to Leonard. The rest of his teammates weren’t far behind. His uncle, Dennis Robertson, rushed onto the court to hug his nephew. Team president Masai Ujiri ran through the lower level of the arena and out of the tunnel. Then there was Kawhi. In a rare show of emotion, the famously stoic superstar let out a primal roar. “Pretty much I'm a guy that acts like I've been there before,” he said soon after. “So probably the last time you've seen me scream was when we won [the championship with the Spurs]. Whenever it's a moment I haven't really experienced, I'll probably try to give some emotion, show some emotion, and let it just come out. Tonight was one of those nights. I've never been in that situation before.” Nobody had been in that situation before. On Sunday, Leonard became the first player in NBA postseason history to hit a game-winning buzzer-beating in a Game 7. Michael Jordan is the only other player to do it in a winner-take-all playoff game, hitting the go-ahead bucket in Game 5 of Chicago’s opening-round series against the Cavaliers in 1989, before the first round was extended to best-of-seven. With their 92-90 win, and the shot that made it possible, the Raptors advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second time in franchise history, where they’ll face the NBA-best Milwaukee Bucks beginning on Wednesday. It came almost exactly 18 years after Vince Carter missed a similar shot over 76ers forward Tyrone Hill, also in the seventh game of the second round against Philadelphia – a moment that has haunted the Raptors and their fans for nearly two decades. You probably remember where you were when Carter’s jumper clanked off the back of the rim that Sunday evening in 2001, same as you will probably remember this Sunday in 2019, when Leonard exorcised Toronto’s demons. He didn’t just save the Raptors’ season and make team history in the process, he gave us a truly iconic moment in sport.