This sense of scoring vulnerability minus Durant didn’t cause the Warriors any grief in their final game against the Rockets in the second round or at any point against the Blazers. But those teams don’t offer the same level of resistance as Toronto, and that could make all the difference.

“They’ve got a lot of versatility,” Kerr said. “I think they’re actually a lot like our team. They can switch and guard different positions. So they did a really good job.”

The Warriors were frazzled. For much of the game, they shot 40 percent. They coughed up 17 turnovers, which cost them 17 points, mostly on fast breaks where Siakam flourished as a finisher. While the Warriors trailed by 17 twice and 18 once in the Western Conference finals, the Raptors never allowed them to scrap back into the game. Toronto never eased up defensively, never became victims of the kind of harsh responses and blizzard runs Golden State does that steal the soul of opposing teams.

“You’ve got to continue to play defense throughout the game,” said Raptors coach Nick Nurse, “even when you’re trying really hard and they will come down and make you look silly.”

The high-powered Warriors looked surprisingly pedestrian in Game 1.

Kawhi is an aggressive and pressing man-to-man defender who can shut down bigger players and quicker players, but he isn’t the only Raptor who brings impressive defensive credentials. Gasol was voted the league’s top defender in 2013 and hasn’t forgotten much since. He caused shots to be diverted or bypassed when various Warriors ventured into the paint and came up with a pair of steals.

Siakam is rubbery and long and uses that reach to block shots; he had two. Fred VanVleet has the toughest assignment -- Curry is his main concern -- and made the former two-time Kia MVP work up a sweat. And there’s Danny Green -- check the film when he guarded LeBron James in The Finals of 2013 and '14 -- willing and able to slow the roll of most shooters.

What the Raptors did was throw traps for Curry and Thompson but also rotate swiftly enough when others were open as a result. Problem for the Warriors is they didn’t have a “step-up” player in the mold of Gasol or Siakam.

The turning point of Game 1 in The Finals was fueled by Pascal Siakam.

They had Draymond Green, who was sloppy and reckless, with six turnovers along with seven misses in nine shot attempts. Green appeared thrown, totally unlike his dominant showing against the Trail Blazers. Andre Iguodala missed all four of his 3-pointers -- and all four were wide open -- then appeared to re-injure his leg late in the game.

Finally, there was DeMarcus Cousins, playing his first game in two months after resting his injured quad. As expected for someone who only had a few full reps in practice, Cousins was rusty, unsure and struggled with his confidence. He forced the issue a few times and bypassed shots on others in his eight minutes.

All of this played right into the Raptors’ greedy hands and allowed them to take a rare game when neither Leonard nor Kyle Lowry, who combined for seven baskets, were big factors. In that sense, this was sort of a bonus win.

The Raptors now know who can rise up when Kawhi surrenders the ball. Siakam will either win the Kia Most Improved Player Award this season or come close -- he was that much of a revelation after developing into a dependable No. 2 scoring option. What was impressive in Game 1 was his composure on such a big stage.

Draymond Green gave a “my bad” reaction for his work on Siakam, which came one day after Green puffed up his own defensive credentials in historic terms. So his timing was faulty, too.

“I’ve got to do a better job of taking his rhythm away,” Green said, “and I will. That’s on me.”

Breaking down possible adjustments for both teams in advance of Game 2.

How far has Siakam come from when he was a raw, unknown prospect six years ago from the Basketball Without Borders program? He now has his own logo.

As for the Warriors, this was the first time they missed Durant in earnest.

“It doesn’t matter until he’s out there,” Kerr said. “If he’s not out there, we play with the guys we have, and we have got enough. We’ll see what happens.”

They claim to be unmoved by the opener, even though they’re down 1-0 in The Finals for the first time in the Kerr era. Maybe there are reasons for this: They had a nine-day break and were perhaps rusty; they aren’t too familiar with the Raptors; they just won five straight without Durant; it was just one of those nights.

Curry said: “We’ve proven our resiliency and ability to win games we need to. Our confidence remains the same.”

Green said: “Now that we’ve got a feel for them, we have a tape to watch. We know what we can do better. I like where we’re at. We leave this game feeling as good as you can possibly feel, knowing that, yeah, we lost, but I think we figured some things out, and we’ll be better next game.”

Yet maybe the Raptors will, too.

This wasn’t exactly a must-have game for Toronto, but it was much needed. This was the first NBA Finals game in Canada, played before a city swelling with basketball pride, backed by much of -- if not the entire -- country, and inside a sold-out arena where the fans only took a few breaths. This win was a confidence builder and could only serve to fortify and intensify Game 2.

If it’ll require two wins for the Raptors to sense, deep in their hearts, that they can win this series, then they’re halfway there. And that starts with defense -- or is it defence?

* * *

Shaun Powell has covered the NBA for more than 25 years. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter .

The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Turner Broadcasting.

Outside of that splashy backcourt, which combined for the quietest 55 points you ever saw, what or who else can the Warriors rely on to take control of the series? Certainly none of that was apparent in Game 1, mainly because the Raptors made sure of that.