2019 NBA Finals

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Warriors Mini-Movie: Dubs Survive Game 5

Warriors Dedicate NBA Cares Learn & Play Zone in Oakland

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Andy Fahey

There were highs. There were lows. There was heartache, joy and inspiration. Monday’s one-point win in Toronto, in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, had Warriors fans feeling all kinds of emotions. Here are some notes, takeaways and thoughts from a game that had a little bit of everything.

“It’s a bizarre feeling that we all have right now — an incredible win and a horrible loss at the same time,” Steve Kerr said during his postgame press conference. If you don’t read anything further, Kerr’s postgame quote is probably the most accurate way to describe the feeling in the aftermath of Monday’s win, and that’s still the case the following day.

Of course, the ‘horrible loss’ that Coach Kerr was referring to was Kevin Durant’s injury. After suffering a strained right calf in Game 5 of the team’s second round series against Houston, Durant returned to the starting lineup on Monday, only to exit the game with a right Achilles injury.

Although injuries are part of the game, this one was tough to see for the Dubs, and for the Raptors players as well. Stephen Curry and Andre Iguodala were among those walking Durant back to the locker room, a decision Curry says he has no recollection making.

“Sometimes the spirit tells you what to do,” Curry said when asked about checking on Durant in the heat of an NBA Finals game. “You don’t really make decisions, you just act on it. I can’t tell you what went through my head, it just felt fright.”

Details of the severity of the injury have yet to be determined, but the postgame mood around the team was dampened for a team that just came up with a big win because all thoughts were with the injured Warrior. Curry’s postgame press conference was less about basketball, and almost exclusively on Durant’s injury, and rightfully so. Furthermore, the emotion of Bob Myers’ press conference on Durant’s injury made it obvious that this was about much more than basketball.

Although he was only able to play 12 minutes before the injury, Durant certainly made his impact felt in that time. Despite not playing in more than a month, he showed little signs of rust in knocking down each of his three 3-point attempts to finish with 11 points, all scored in the first quarter. Considering the Warriors won by just one point, the Dubs needed every one of those shots to win the game and keep their championship hopes alive.

The Raptors had won three of the first four games of the series with a defense that on multiple occasions smothered the Warriors offense for long stretches at a time. That was once again the case on Monday as the Dubs scored just 13 points over the first nine and a half minutes of the fourth quarter. With the Warriors struggling to find offense, Kawhi Leonard, who had been contained to an inefficient game to that point, rattled off 10 straight points for the Raptors in a span of less than two minutes, resulting in Toronto leading 103-97 with 3:28 left in the game.

Cue the Splash Brothers. Curry, Klay Thompson and Durant had opened the game with five straight 3-pointers in the first quarter, and minus an injured Durant, the squad finished the game in similar fashion. Thompson used a Draymond Green screen and dribbled into a 3-pointer from the left wing to start the comeback. Two possessions later, Curry curled around another screen and drilled a catch-and-shoot trey to tie it with 1:22 left in the game. Leonard missed a potential go-ahead 3-pointer for the Raptors on the other end before Thompson put the Warriors good with his seventh 3-pointer of the game, and the Warriors did just enough the rest of the way to hang on to the victory.

“This was a whale of a basketball game,” Warriors radio broadcaster Tim Roye said after the game.  “When you talk about NBA Finals games, I think this will go down as one of the most remembered and one of the best and hotly competed games in NBA history.”

On the last play of the game, the Warriors had a foul to give, but instead ran two defenders at Leonard, who a few minutes earlier had scored 10 of his 26 points in a span of less than two minutes. Leonard passed the ball out to Fred VanVleet on the perimeter, who dished it out to Kyle Lowry in the corner in front of the Warriors bench. Lowry launched as Draymond Green ran out to challenge the shot. Had Lowry made it, it would have given the Raptors their first championship in franchise history. Instead, Draymond Green got a game-winning block.
Tim Roye had the call of that game-ending play on the Warriors Radio Network:

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Game 5 Reactions: The Highs and Lows of a 106-105 Victory in Toronto

The back-to-back NBA Champion Golden State Warriors today announced that tickets for Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals will go on sale on Thursday, June 6 with exclusive presale events before becoming available to the general public at 4:00 p.m. The Toronto Raptors hold a 2-1 series lead in the 2019 NBA Finals, and the Warriors will host Game 4 on Friday, June 7 at 6:00 p.m. at Oracle Arena, and the if-necessary Game 6 on Thursday, June 13 at 6:00 p.m. The Warriors captured the 2018 NBA Championship, marking the team’s sixth NBA title (2018, 2017, 2015, 1975, 1956, 1947), and have an active streak of five consecutive appearances in the NBA Finals. Golden State is the sixth franchise in the four-major North American sports to make five-or-more consecutive championship appearances, joining the Montreal Canadiens (NHL), Boston Celtics (NBA), Cleveland Browns (NFL), New York Yankees (MLB) and New York Islanders (NHL).

The first presale event begins on Thursday, June 6, at 9:00 a.m., exclusively for the team’s season ticket holders. Beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, June 6, two additional presale events will begin for members of the Warriors’ Season Ticket Priority Wait List and for Santa Cruz Warriors season ticket holders.

On Thursday, June 6, at 10:30 a.m., Warriors Insiders members will receive information to participate in a presale event, before tickets go on-sale to the general public at 4:00 p.m. Fans will be able to purchase single game tickets for Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals at Oracle Arena, exclusively online at  warriors.com.

Fans interested in securing playoff tickets by joining the Season Ticket Holder Priority Wait List, which currently has over 43,000 members, can still do so by calling 888-GSW-HOOP. Fans interested in taking part in the exclusive presales for Warriors Insiders, can do so by signing up for  Insider Email Alerts.

In the event that a Warriors playoff game is sold out, tickets may still be purchased through theWarriors official resale marketplace, where season ticket holders and other fans resell tickets that are 100% guaranteed by the Warriors organization. The Warriors ticket marketplace offers a safe and convenient way for fans to access all levels of tickets throughout the regular season and playoffs.

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Warriors Announce Ticket On-Sale Information for Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals

All season long, the Warriors have faced questions about their depth. But in the playoffs, the squad has managed to get key plays in key moments from their reserves; with seemingly each player taking turns in impacting games off the bench. Now, with the NBA Finals tied at 1-1 heading into Game 3 on Wednesday at Oracle Arena, the Dubs will need to once again lean on their ‘Strength in Numbers’ mentality, and how the team responds can determine whether or not the season ends with a third straight championship.

In Sunday’s Game 2 victory, it was Quinn Cook’s time to step up, and he did so in the fourth quarter. After Danny Green brought Toronto within four on a deep transition 3-pointer, the second straight Raptors possession resulting in a trey, Cook responded with pair of 3-pointers from nearly the same spot on the right wing. Given that Toronto followed that sequence with another 3-pointer, Cook’s shots proved to be huge for the Dubs in maintaining their advantage.

In addition to Cook’s big shots, Andrew Bogut also contributed to the Game 2 win.  After not playing in the team’s Game 1 defeat last Thursday, the Aussie big man was thrust into the rotation in the wake of Kevon Looney’s injury. Bogut subbed into the game at the 4:50 mark in the third quarter and 24 seconds later entered the scoring column by finishing a Stephen Curry lob to the rim.  Bogut would convert on two more lobs and play some staunch defense in the process, helping the Dubs protect their Game 2 advantage.

When Klay Thompson exited Game 2 with a strained left hamstring, that provided an opportunity for Warriors guard Shaun Livingston to be on the floor with the Dubs’ game-ending lineup, and all he did was potentially save the game by catching a soft pass from Curry that was nearly intercepted by Toronto’s all-world defender Kawhi Leonard. Livingston snatched the pass and then casually made a no-look pass to Andre Iguodala, who smoothly knocked down the game-clinching 3-pointer for the Dubs with 5.9 seconds left.

“We all joke amongst us of bad receivers and good receivers. I always call Kevin (Durant) a bad receiver. I always call Shaun a bad receiver,” Draymond Green said during his postgame press conference on Sunday. "He turned into a Megatron (Calvin Johnson) tonight for that pass. It was big for us.”

For any team fortunate enough to play into June, injuries and ailments are part of the game, and the Warriors are certainly no exception. Looney is out for the remainder of The Finals with a non-displaced first costal cartilage fracture and Thompson is questionable with his hamstring strain. DeMarcus Cousins is playing his way back into shape after missing more than a month with a torn quad muscle and the team is hopeful that Kevin Durant returns after straining his right calf in the second round vs. Houston.

Regardless of who’s healthy enough to suit up and how many minutes they can play, the team will have to rely on their depth moving forward. The Warriors have gone deeper into their bench than the Raptors over these first two games, and how effective the Dubs’ reserves are going forward will certainly have an impact on the remaining games in the series.

“When you get to this stage, our DNA shows up,” Curry said. “It’s not just something you just throw out there to have nice shirts and give out to the crowd at Oracle and have all this marketing stuff. It’s literally how we approach every day from training camp to June. How we support each other, how guys stay ready throughout the year … it shows itself over the course of a season.”

Can Cook, who is 4-for-6 on 3-pointers in these last two games, continue to knock down shots? Will Bogut continue to have a presence in the paint when called upon? Can Livingston continually be counted on to make winning plays? Will another reserve step up in a timely situation? These types of contributions have been part of the Dubs’ identity for five seasons, so why should anything change now?

Other Warriors-centric thoughts, notes and observations from the first two games of the NBA Finals …

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A True Test for Strength in Numbers

The NBA announced today that Metallica’s James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett will perform the U.S. national anthem, and singer-songwriter Tenille Arts will perform the Canadian national anthem tonight ahead of Game 3 of the 2019 NBA Finals presented by YouTube TV.  Both performances will air live on ABC in the U.S. and Sportsnet in Canada from Oracle Arena before the Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors take the court at 9 p.m. ET.

On Friday, June 7, GRAMMY®Award-winner NE-YO and multi-platinum band Walk Off the Earth will perform the U.S. and Canadian national anthems, respectively, prior to Game 4 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC and TSN.