Warriors Make a Late Comeback, Win Game 5 in Toronto, 106-105

Kyle Lowry had a chance to clinch the series and the NBA Finals for the Toronto Raptors, but his three-pointer from the corner has been blocked by Draymond Green.

In the end, the champions pulled out a hard-fought 106-105 win, which will be remembered for a long time.

They had a 14-point lead, they had Kevin Durant, the momentum, but all suddenly disappeared. Durant was out in the second period, their halftime lead was erased, and everything went in Toronto’s favor.

With 3:28 to go, Toronto was up 6-points, 103-97. That’s when the Splash brothers stepped up. Klay Thompson made two long-distance hits, Steph Curry one, and the Warriors were ahead in no time. The last attack was meant to be finished by Kawhi Leonard, but a hard and aggressive defense forced the Claw to pass the ball to Lowry. Green showed why he is one of the best defenders in the league.

“He got a piece of it, that’s what great defenders do,” Lowry said. “He got a piece of it and we’ll continue to look at it and see how we can be better for the next game.”

The situation with Durant is serious, and it appears that KD hurt his Achilles pretty bad. After the game, he was moving around on crutches and GSW’s general manager, Bob Myers was pretty upset with his condition.

DeMarcus Cousins was angry because some of the fans cheered and laughed when Durant picked up an injury.

“Trash,” Cousins who posted 14 points told about them, “It’s all trash.”

Up until the moment when he got out, Durant scored 11 points in 12 minutes, shooting threes 3 for 3. Curry finished the game with 31 points, 10 for 23 from the field, 5 for 14 from downtown. Steph added 8 boards and 7 dimes also.

Klay did deliver fewer buckets, 26, but was much hotter behind the arc, 7 for 13, grabbing 6 boards and 4 assists.

“Three minutes, down six, it shows you the kind of toughness we have,” told Klay during the on-court interview.

As usual, Draymond’s effort was felt all over the court, 10 points and boards, and 8 assists.

On the other side, Kawhi recorded a double-double with 26 buckets and 12 rebounds. Th Claw had 6 assists too. Lowry contributed with 18 points, and 6 dimes, but was 1 of 6 for three. Marc Gasol had 17, Pascal Siakam 12.

Serge Ibaka scored 15 off the bench, Van Vleet 11.

The Raptors were 8 for 32 for three and couldn’t get their rhythm behind the three-point line at all. Meanwhile, the Warriors dropped 20 threes in 42 attempts, and this aspect of the game made the difference on the floor.

The series is heading for Oracle Arena. This will be the last game at that building because the Warriors are moving next year to the Chase Center. A lot of emotions will be involved, and Steve Kerr’s boys have a tremendous motive to win that one. It would be a perfect farewell of the Warriors from the venue which saw them grew into one of the most dominant teams in the NBA history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1nT2xN7cwo

The Raptors will have to recover from this hard shock. We used the word shock on purpose because as we mentioned earlier, Toronto did have everything on its side, but those three downtown hits blew away the title dreams.

What is interesting to see also is the mental strength of the Leonard and the crew. Are they capable of overcoming a huge pressure? Are they strong enough to finish the series, and not afraid to win?

After all, this is their first Finals, while on the other side, Warriors have a certain routine in these types of situations. For some fans, the finals are just starting, and we have to say that they are not far from true.

Game 6 will start at 7 pm local time in Oakland, this Thursday.