Kawhi Leonard gave Giannis Antetokounmpo some words of encouragement after the Toronto Raptors saw off the Milwaukee Bucks to make their first ever NBA Finals.

A 100-94 victory in Game 6 saw the Raptors secure a 4-2 series win, winning four straight games on the bounce against the No.1 seeds, and now take on the Golden State Warriors.

Kawhi was once again the star of the show and capped a fine performance with an astonishing fourth quarter dunk over Giannis – though he was quick to praise the Greek Freak afterwards.

Asked what he told Bucks star after embracing post-game, Leonard revealed: ‘I just told him congratulations, he got a lot better, and just to keep working.’

On making the NBA Finals, he continued: ‘It’s still surreal to me right now. We just won Game 6, but this is what we’ve been striving for all season.

‘Everybody was saying, “Get to the Finals and win it”, and it’s not over yet. We‘re going to enjoy the win tonight, go into the locker room and see what we got to do tomorrow for the next team.’

Giannis was understandably disappointed after the Bucks blew a big lead on Saturday night, but was full of praise for Kawhi.

Speaking at his post-match press conference, he said: ‘You can tell from the way he was playing. And not just in this series, but the previous series also. The way he plays, he has so much patience, he knows what he’s going to do, he has confidence in himself and he has the experience.

‘He’s been here before, he’s been to the finals multiple times, and he played well. He did everything that he could to help his team win and he was a tough guy to guard for our team.’

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