Garrett Temple Faces Game 6 With Raptors And NBA Year 17
garrett temple enters Game 6 with Toronto's season on the line and his own NBA future hanging over the night. The Raptors must beat Cleveland in Toronto to keep the first-round series alive, and a loss would end Temple's 17th season.
Temple And The Raptors
The 39-year-old guard said the stakes are simple. "I don’t want this to be my last game," Temple said, adding, "We know that we have to protect home court." Toronto trails the fourth-seeded Cavaliers after Cleveland broke a 2-2 tie with a Game 5 win on Wednesday.
That leaves the fifth-seeded Raptors with one path: win Game 6 tonight to force Game 7 in Cleveland on Sunday. Temple also framed the approach in direct terms: "We need to play our defense."
LeBron’s 17-Season Moment
Temple's career has already stretched far beyond the path many expected when he went undrafted in 2009 and signed with Houston later that summer. He made his NBA debut with the Rockets on Feb. 9, 2010, then built a 793-game career across 12 teams while averaging 5.8 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.6 assists.
He is the NBA’s fourth-longest active player and the fourth-oldest player in the league. Temple has also seen his role shrink in Toronto, where he averaged career lows of 0.8 points, 0.4 assists and 0.4 rebounds this season after a peak of 10.3 points per game with Brooklyn in 2019-20.
Wynn Hotel Conversation
Last summer, Temple and his wife, Kara, ran into LeBron James at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas. Temple said, "His whole entourage was moving people out of the way," and added, "Somebody pushed me out the way and ‘Bron said, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa.’"
The exchange turned into a short celebration of longevity. Temple said, "We chopped it up," and later recalled James telling him, "Man, 17 for you now." Temple replied, "I said, ‘Twenty years, bro, this is crazy.’" He said the compliment "meant a great deal" to him.
The playoff pressure now brings that 17-year run into focus. Temple has already said, "Our backs are against the wall," and the Raptors need one win to keep his season going a little longer.
