NBA Finals: Jimmy Kimmel And Players Put On Their Game Faces For #MeanTweets

It’s time for the 2019 NBA finals, as the Toronto Raptors take on the defending champion Golden State Warriors. Or, as Jimmy Kimmel put it during the NBA Game Night primetime special, “A team of young Canadian upstarts – versus – the team that’s gonna win.”

Kimmel was in rare form on his monologue. Some of his better lines:

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*** “The Warriors are super motivated to win this series. Cause – as you know, when you collect three consecutive championship rings – you can trade them in for a championship necklace which very few players have.”

*** :”The good news for the Raptors is – all-star forward Kevin Durant is out for the game with a calf injury – which means the Warriors will be force to play with only three future Hall of Famers in their lineup.”

***. At this point, the Warriors are like the Avengers. We all know they’re going to win – we just have to spend three hours to find out how.”

*** “Toronto is the first Canadian team to make the finals ever – even though – did you know – the first game in NBA history was played in Toronto? The Toronto Huskies versus the NY Knicks It was back in 1946. The Knicks won game. It was the last time the Knicks won a game.”

*** “And, of course, no one is more excited about the Raptors being in the finals – than their number one superstar super fan. I haven’t seen Drake this happy since Etsy started selling sweaters.”

***. This is – but not everyone loves watching Drake celebrate with the team. He was on the receiving end of some trash talk on Twitter from none other than the band SmashMouth…Which wrote… “Yo @drake when the ball is in-play sit the FCK down! That ain’t gonna fly in Oakland! #GlorifiedMascot Somebody needs to wash their smash mouth out with soap! Who knew SmashMouth was so angry?Who even knew SmashMouth was still SmashMouth?”

***”It’s not a great sign when your number-one fan has tattoos of players from the other team on his body. Jack Nicholson isn’t showing at Laker games with a ‘Harden 4 EVR’ on — as a tramp-stamp.”

To round out his show, Kimmel brought out the annual 2019 editon of #MeanTweets featuring top NBA players and one executive repeating the online digs against them. Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal, Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Ballmer, Joel Embiid, Charles Barkley, Ben Simmons, Jrue Holiday, Paul George, Chris Bosh, Kyle Lowry, Kemba Walker, Karl Anthony-Towns, Danny Green, Khris Middleton, Brook Lopez and Robin Lopez. Watch the video above

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