Brooklyn Nets vs. Toronto Raptors Watch FREE NBA PLAYOFFS Live Streaming Online From Air Canada Centre at 1:00 PM ET
Andray Blatch is confident the Nets have found the "recipe" they need to beat the Raptors. And that's not all.
Riding high after a big win in Game 6, Blatche cooked up controversy by guaranteeing the Nets will win their first-round series with a Game 7 victory in Toronto on Sunday.
The Nets, who nearly overturned a 26-point deficit with a 44-point fourth quarter in Game 5, carried that momentum into Friday night's must-win meeting in Brooklyn, staving off elimination by jumping out to a 34-19 lead and limiting the Raptors to a series-low 83 points.
That had Blatche boasting that Brooklyn would soon be settling into a second-round series against the two-time defending champion Heat.
"We guarantee it," Blatche said after Friday's game. "We're gonna go there (Sunday), take care of business and go to Miami."
Blatche's guarantee wasn't welcomed by the Raptors.
"Who does he think he is?" Toronto guard Greivis Vasquez asked after the Raptors practiced Saturday. "He's not KG or Pierce or Jason Kidd. We're not going to listen to his nonsense."
Whatever they think of Blatche's brash prediction, the Raptors are admittedly on the ropes after struggling to close out Game 5, then playing poorly in Game 6. The Nets, meanwhile, feel things are starting to go their way.
"I think our momentum will carry over," Blatche said. "I think we found the recipe."
Toronto may not have momentum on its side, but it will have an arena full of fired-up fans. The noise at Air Canada Centre was so loud during Game 5, even the Nets' official Twitter feed took notice, urging Brooklyn fans to behave more like their boisterous Canadian counterparts.
Neither team has won a Game 7 before: the Nets are 0-2 in such situations, while the Raptors are 0-1. Brooklyn lost Game 7 at Chicago in the first round last year.
Experience, or Toronto's lack of it, has been debated at length this series, and could prove vital in Sunday's winner-take-all atmosphere. Toronto's roster has played in seven Game 7s combined, one fewer than Pierce alone.
"This is the type of situation that I love and love to be in," Pierce said Friday.
In all, the Nets have a combined 27 games worth of experience in Game 7s. "Someone's got to go home," Nets guard Joe Johnson said Friday. "We don't want it to be us."
The tip-off time for Sunday's game doesn't favor the Raptors. Including their Game 1 loss to Brooklyn, Toronto is 3-7 this season in games that start before 6 p.m.
"It's not great," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. "The numbers speak for themselves."
Still, Casey said he hopes his players learned a valuable lesson about what's needed to close out a series after coming up short Friday.
"I hope that they did gain something by getting punched last night and knowing how hard Brooklyn is going to come out and how hard we have to come out," Casey said.
The game will live stream on www.nbaslivestreamfree.net