2017-18 NBA G League Finals

Result

Finals MVP: Nick Johnson

The league was rebranded the "NBA G League" starting this season. The Austin Spurs (renamed from the Austin Toros back in October 2014) won a second franchise title, sweeping Raptors 905 (105-93, then 98-76).

Games

Finals context

The 2017-18 season carried the league's second major rebrand of the period covered by this file: the NBA Development League/D-League name gave way to the sponsorship-driven "NBA Gatorade League," shortened in everyday branding to the "NBA G League," the name the league has carried ever since. On the court, the Austin Spurs -- the renamed successor to the Austin Toros, who had already won the franchise's first title back in 2011-12 -- claimed a second championship, sweeping Raptors 905 in two games under first-year head coach Blake Ahearn. Austin won Game 1 on the road at Mississauga's Hershey Centre, 105-93, then closed out the title two nights later with a 98-76 rout, powered by a decisive 23-2 fourth-quarter run; Austin's bench alone outscored the Raptors 905's reserves 49-32 across the game, while the 905 shot an abysmal 2-for-27 from three-point range in the clincher. Guard Nick Johnson, a former Arizona Wildcat who had not appeared in an NBA game since the 2014-15 season, was the individual story of the series, scoring 17 points in both games (shooting a combined 52.2 percent from the field and 35.5 percent from three across the regular season, then far more efficiently in the Finals themselves, including 5-of-6 from three in the clincher) en route to winning the Finals MVP award. Contemporary reporting from multiple independent outlets -- including the Tucson-based paper covering Johnson's University of Arizona roots, an Arizona-focused SB Nation site, and San Antonio-area television and press coverage of the Austin Spurs -- all confirm Johnson's Finals MVP honor clearly and consistently. This is worth flagging directly: this season's finals_mvp field in this file was recorded as blank, evidently on the assumption that no Finals MVP was presented, but the research for this round turned up unambiguous, multiply-sourced contemporary reporting that Nick Johnson did in fact win the award. That is recorded as a caveat here rather than silently corrected, per this project's standing discipline on discrepancies in previously shipped fields. Separately, this file's existing note attributing Austin's name change from Toros to Spurs to this 2017-18 season also appears to be inaccurate: multiple contemporary 2014 sources -- a KSAT news report and an Austin American-Statesman article, both dated October 2014 -- confirm the Toros were renamed the Austin Spurs in October 2014, well before this championship, meaning the Spurs were already playing under that name for three full seasons, including a Finals loss in 2016-17, before this title. The champion name itself, "Austin Spurs," is correct for 2017-18 regardless; only the note's account of when the rebrand happened is in question, and it is flagged as a caveat rather than altered directly.

Sources

• TSN — Austin Spurs down Raptors 905 to win G League title
• RaptorsHQ — Raptors 905 lose Game 1 of Finals 105-93 to the Austin Spurs
• KSAT — Austin Toros renamed Austin Spurs
• Austin American-Statesman — Toros make a change — to Austin Spurs
• Arizona Desert Swarm — Nick Johnson named NBA G League Finals MVP
• On Point Basketball — Raptors 905 fall to the Austin Spurs, who capture their 2nd NBA G League Championship