SAN FRANCISCO — Down 3-2 in their best-of-7 series, the Golden State Warriors staved off elimination with a 121-106 Game 5 victory on Wednesday night at the Chase Center in downtown San Francisco.
After a close first quarter that ended at 32-28, the host Warriors, playing in front of a capacity crowd of 18,064, started to pull away with a 38-point second quarter that allowed them to build an 18-point lead which they never relinquished.
Steph Curry had 27 points and eight assists and was once again the main catalyst of the Golden State offense. Klay Thompson couldn’t find any traction on offense with just 10 points on 3-of-12 shooting but Draymond Green compensated for it with 20 and 10 rebounds.
Andrew Wiggins added 25 for the Warriors, who shot 51.1 percent from the field (47-of-92) and 13-of-35 from long distance (37.1 percent).
Even with the crucial win, the Warriors are still down 2-3 and must survive Game 6 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles to forge a Game 7 back at the Chase Center.
“We’re champions, so there’s pressure every time you step on the floor. You go out, you don’t win people are ready to crush you. People forget about the things that you’ve done in the past,” Green told reporters of the challenges that face them as defending champions.
LeBron James and Anthony Davis combined for 48 points. De Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves had 30 points between them while Dennis Schroder added 14 and four assists, but it wasn’t enough as the Lakers got pounded on the boards, 48-38, and lost the assists battle, 29-24.
Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals is set for this Friday night in Los Angeles (Saturday AM in Manila). The winner of this series awaits the winner of the Suns versus Nuggets series which is currently at 3-2 in favor of Denver.
