NBA Finals with a 100-94 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 6, Lowry stumbled trying to explain what that moment felt like.

"That feeling is not," he started. "You don't know that feeling ... You just don't know what to say. It's not a feeling you can describe."

As he talked, the game ball was in his locker, sitting on top of a pile of gear. He had made sure to grab the final rebound after the buzzer sounded. As he ran off the floor to hug his kids, that ball was stuck to his hip. It was still there as he spoke with TNT's Ernie Johnson at the trophy presentation.

"I might take it home," he admitted.

The Raptors are going to the NBA Finals for the first time infranchise history.

Over the five regular seasons prior to this one, the Toronto Raptors had 19 more regular-season wins than any other team in the Eastern Conference. But in regard to postseason success, they had little to show for it.

There was Lowry getting blocked at the buzzer of Game 7 against Brooklyn in 2014. There was the embarrassing, first-round sweep at the hands of the Washington Wizards the year after that. They reached the conference finals in 2016, but a 2-2 series wasn't an "adverse situation" for LeBron James, whose Cleveland Cavaliers swept the Raptors out of the conference semis in both 2017 and 2018.

Lowry is the only guy on the current roster that's been here for all the regular-season success and all the postseason frustration. And more often