Edmonton basketball fans fly to Oakland for NBA Finals

A Raptors fan and a Warriors fan from Edmonton, Alta., are going the distance for their favourite teams.

They travelled all the way to California to watch Toronto win Game 3 of the NBA Final series with Golden State on Wednesday night.

Naomi Finseth told Global News they’d been planning the trip for a while.

“I said like, four months ago when Toronto was starting to look pretty good, ‘If Toronto and Golden State are in the final, we’re going,’ because they’re our two favourite teams.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I said like, four months ago when Toronto was starting to look pretty good, 'If Toronto and Golden State are in the final, we're going,' because they're our two favourite teams."

She said they were planning to watch the games in Toronto, but chose Oakland because tickets were a lot more affordable.

“It was probably close to $1,000 cheaper to come here than it was to go to Toronto.”

Even so, Nathan Sereda said buying the tickets for Game 3 was still a gamble.

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“Halfway through Game 6, Milwaukee and Toronto, we actually bought our tickets and bought the plane tickets, bought the game tickets and we were ready to go,” Sereda said. “And so when the Raptors pulled away in the fourth quarter of Game 6, it was actually pretty exciting because it made our bet look pretty good.”

Watch below: Raptors talk about Game 3 against the Golden State Warriors in Oakland

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• NBA Finals: Nick Nurse credits Raptors for answering Warriors runs in Game 3 win
• NBA Finals: Steve Kerr, Nick Nurse go over final preparations for Game 3

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Finseth said it’s thrilling that the team she loves has come this far.

“Like most Raptors fans, we’re always kind of like, ‘Oh, you know, they’re going to flame out in the playoffs.’ We don’t know what’s going to happen.

“So to actually see them go all the way through to the finals is huge because we’re kind of always kind of doubting. It’s pretty exciting not to doubt.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "So to actually see them go all the way through to the finals is huge because we're kind of always kind of doubting. It's pretty exciting not to doubt."

Golden State fan Sereda admitted he won’t be all that upset if the Raptors win.

Game 4 of the NBA Finals is scheduled for 7 p.m. MT on Friday in Oakland.

— With files from Rob Leth, Global News