By Ap Reporter
Published: 07:12 BST, 24 May 2019 | Updated: 07:12 BST, 24 May 2019
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Kawhi Leonard scored 35 points as the Toronto Raptors beat the Milwaukee Bucks 105-99 on Thursday night to take a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference finals.
Leonard showed no obvious signs of the leg injury that bothered him in Toronto's victories in the previous two games, hitting the 30-point mark for the fourth time in the series. He made five 3-pointers and had seven rebounds and nine assists.
Fred VanVleet scored 21 points, hitting seven 3s. Kyle Lowry added 17 as the Raptors put themselves in position to advance to the NBA Finals for the first time in the franchise's history. A victory at home on Saturday would set up a match-up with two-time defending champion Golden State Warriors.
'This was a super-hard win tonight,' Raptors coach Nick Nurse said.
The Raptors battled out of an early 14-point hole, then got 15 points from Leonard in the fourth quarter to send the top-seeded Bucks to their first three-game losing streak of the season.
'We weathered the storm early,' Leonard said.
Giannis Antetokounmpo had 24 points for Milwaukee hours after being announced as a unanimous first-team, All-NBA
