SAN FRANCISCO — For the first four games of the series, Steph Curry was basically the John Travolta poison. Driven by determination, skill and experience, Curry asked his teammates to follow him into battle with a Western Conference Finals appearance on the line.
When he arrived, however, his cavalry was nowhere to be seen.
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Facing a 3-1 deficit and desperately in need of a full team effort, Curry’s supporting cast finally entered the room to lead the Golden State Warriors to a 121-106 Game 5 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday at Chase Center. fight again in Game 6 on Friday.
A rare sighting of the bucket-lucky Draymond Green, who tends to show up only in the most necessary situations, was an early sign that help had arrived for Curry. He did it in Game 5 against the Kings, then again in Game 2 against the Lakers—the Warriors’ only win in the series prior to Wednesday—and in Game 5, scored 20 points on 7-for-11 shooting.
Few things get Warriors fans as excited as a Draymond Green 3-pointer, and he performed early to generate the Chase Center buzz that lasted the entire game and sent a harbinger of ill-intent toward the Lakers .
Green scored eight points in the first quarter and finished the half with 14—more than he scored in all but 10 regular season games.
“I loved his approach to the game tonight,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr after the Game 5 victory. “He was aggressive from the start – got a foul on the first play and didn’t care. He made it no point. He said, “I’m coming. I’m coming.” I thought for sure he was one of the keys.”
Andrew Wiggins came along for the ride, appearing in Game 3 showed a glimpse of the player he became last postseason, but put up a lackluster Game 4, then admitted he needed to be more assertive. That wasn’t a problem in Game 5, as Wiggins scored 25 points on 10-for-18 shooting, along with seven rebounds and five assists. Since Anthony Davis started on him defensively, Wiggins put up a lot of screens to draw Davis out, leading to game chances. Wiggins’ aggressiveness as a scorer attracted multiple defenders, and he continually made the right assessment to either score himself or keep the Warriors looking tight.
“It’s the best version of who he is and how he can influence games,” Curry said of Wiggins after Game 5. “It’s huge that he takes 18 shots. We need that every night. And it’s up to us as a team to show him at certain points in the game too, because he’s such an athlete and he can make his own shot. I have to give it to him and let him do what he does.”
Wiggins “did what he does” on the dagger with just under three minutes left that sent the Lakers to LA. . It put the Warriors up to 14, ending any possible thoughts of a late Laker comeback.
Even Jordan Poole, the butt of pretty much every Warriors-related joke in recent weeks, showed signs of life during Game 5. He wasn’t great, scoring 11 points on 5-of-14 shooting in 23 minutes, but something that Poole brings is considered the icing on the cake after the terrible streak he endured.
Finally, there was Gary Payton II, who was rewarded with a fresh start after a brilliant Game 4 performance. Davis wasn’t guarding Payton, so he wasn’t as involved as a screener — where he flourished Monday — but he used his athleticism to finish around the rim, kept the defense fair by knocking down a 3-pointer, and got Golden State extra possession with three offensive rebounds. Overall, Payton finished with 13 points, six rebounds and a steal, going 4-of-5 from both the field and the free throw line. To quantify its impact, look no further than the team-best plus-25 in the box score.
Green said it’s important for himself and Payton to “be aggressive on both sides of the floor,” so it begs the question of why he and the other Warriors can’t just do that every night. The answer probably lies on the defensive side, where Green, Payton and Wiggins are tasked with stopping the Lakers’ offense led by the skillful and physical duo of Davis and LeBron James, along with a host of piercing guards.
“It probably takes quite a bit of us. But with the adrenaline, and we know what kind of game this is, you have to go,” said Payton. “Once we get it, we magically find energy on the other side.”
The Warriors finally gave Curry the help he needed, even as Klay Thompson went off the field 3-of-12, and that allowed him to pick his spot on a second straight sub-par shooting night. He finished with a team-high 27 points on 3-for-11 3-point shooting, but he went 9-of-13 from 2-point range. Not having to carry all of the offensive load during the game, Curry had enough gas left to hit the two biggest shots of the night as the Lakers cut the lead to nine with just under six minutes remaining.
First, he knocked down a pull-up jumper straight out of a timeout, then on the next possession, he whipped one of his trademark falling threes to thoroughly discourage the Lakers.
The challenge for the Warriors now is to bring this full effort into Game 6 in Los Angeles on Friday. Curry’s track record tells us that he’s sure to appear in another elimination game, but which members of the supporting cast will join him? Wednesday’s win is a step in the right direction and should give Golden State confidence, but taking the show on the road is a different animal, especially after two consecutive losses at the Crypto.com Arena, where the Lakers have been this postseason. standing 6-0. .
“Whether it was shooting the three, whether it was going to the hole, whether it was defensive, just attacking,” Green said of his Game 5 mentality to Los Angeles. Our job is not done, we are still facing elimination and we will be eliminated for the rest of this series. So we have to have the same mindset. Back against the wall, you gotta get out and fight.”