Warriors Narrowly Escape Game Five to Force NBA Finals Game 6 at Home

by Julian Spivey
The Golden State Warriors barely escaped game five of the NBA Finals in Toronto by the skin of their teeth winning 106-105 in a gritty, tough fought fourth quarter that saw the lead change back and forth for the first final quarter lead changes of the entire series thus far.
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The game five win for the Warriors forces a game six on Thursday at their home court Oracle Arena in Oakland, which win or lose will be the team’s final game in the arena before moving across the bay next season to their new San Francisco home.

The biggest story going into the game for the Warriors was the return of superstar Kevin Durant, who hadn’t played a game in over a month since his injury against the Houston Rockets in the second round of the playoffs. Durant looked good from the start hitting a couple of threes in the first quarter and quickly tallying 11 points for the Warriors. However, the excitement of Durant’s return would be short lived. Early in the second quarter while planting his leg against Raptors defender Serge Ibaka something immediately went wrong for Durant and he left the game for good with some sort of an Achilles injury. He will undergo an MRI on Tuesday. He’s almost certainly done for the remainder of the series.

In one of the most disturbing moments I’ve ever seen from NBA fans some in attendance in Toronto were cheering Durant’s injury and even mockingly waiving him goodbye from the expensive seats on the baseline. This kind of behavior is absolutely despicable and pretty much shuts down all of the good things the media has said about the Toronto fans this series.

Despite Durant’s injury the Warriors seemed unbothered in the second quarter taking a double digit lead that at one point in the third quarter would be as much as 14 points. Two-time NBA MVP Stephen Curry and perennial All Star Klay Thompson played huge minutes for Golden State throughout the game with Curry leading the way with 31 points going 10-for-23 from the field with five three-pointers. Thompson would be close behind in the scoring column with 26 points with seven of his nine makes coming from behind the arc. It was the three-ball that truly kept the Warriors in the game for the entirety of game five going 20-for-42 from three point land. Durant was 3-for-3 from behind the arc before his injury. Draymond Green who’s struggled with threes all series long went 2-for-4. DeMarcus Cousins, who came off the bench for the Warriors in game five, played 20 big minutes in really only his second good game of the series after game two with 14 points to be the team’s third leading scorer. Green and Andre Iguodala were also in double figures scoring.

The Raptors clawed their way back into the game in the fourth quarter with superstar and likely NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard taking control around the midway point of the quarter and giving the Raptors their first lead since very early on in the first quarter. It seemed Leonard and the Raptors were going to completely take control of the game from that point on and win the first championship in franchise history, but some big shots down the stretch by Thompson regained the lead for Golden State. On a moving screen foul with about 13 seconds remaining in the game by Cousins the ball would go back to the Raptors for a final possession and chance to seal the title. Point guard Kyle Lowry couldn’t end up getting the best look and missed what would’ve been a game-winner.

Leonard led the Raptors in scoring once again with 26 points but did struggle shooting at times only going 9-for-24 from the field. Lowry was the second highest scorer for the Raptors with 18 points. Marc Gasol, Pascal Siakam, Ibaka and Fred VanVleet would all end up in double digits scoring for Toronto.

One key stat for game five of the Finals is that the Warriors only won the game by one point and Durant was able to give them 11 points while only on the floor for 12 minutes. Without Durant on Monday night the Warriors would’ve lost the game by double digits and given the Raptors the championship.

It’s great that the Warriors aren’t giving in and nobody expects this dynasty team to do that, and I’m sure NBA fans everywhere want this series to go as long as possible, but at the end of the day it seems like the inevitable of the Raptors winning their first championship is merely being put off for another day. 

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