Golden State Warriors have taken a 3-2 lead in the NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics after beating them by 104-94 in Game 5 of the series at Chase Center, San Francisco on Monday night. But, their talisman Steph Curry had a disappointing night by his lofty standards as he could only score 16 points.
In fact, Curry’s streak of 233 games of made 3-pointers ended as he shot 0-9 from the 3-point line. However, the rest of the Golden State Warriors players were able to lift their game to give a crucial lead to their team and the Dubs are now one win away from the NBA Championship.
Andrew Wiggins top-scored with 26 points whereas Klay Thompson scored 21 points. The Dubs outscored Boston Celtics by 27-16 in the first quarter. However, the second quarter was neck to neck at 24-23 to GSW. But, the visitors bounced back in the third quarter as they took it by 35-24.
GSW was able to take the fourth quarter by 29-20 to clinch the game. Meanwhile, Draymond Green reckons Curry will be livid by his individual performance going into Game 6 and it is what they need.
“Whether Steph gets 43, 10, 4, or whether he finishes with 16-for-22 shooting — a win is a win,” teammate Draymond Green said. “… He was 0-for-9 from 3. He’s going to be livid going into Game 6, and that’s exactly what we need.”
Curry, on the other hand, is not bothered by his ho-hum performance and said he will keep shooting whenever he will get his chances. In fact, the last time when Curry could not score a 3-pointer in the game was back in 2018 against Milwaukee Bucks.
“Keep shooting,” Curry said of his mentality when he comes off games like this one. “Very simple. Like there’s never — I’m not afraid to go 0-for-whatever because I’m going to keep shooting and taking shots that you normally feel like you can make. And I’ve responded well when I’ve had games like that from the 3-point line.
“But I’ve never — I don’t think I’ve ever been happier after a 0-for-whatever type of night, just knowing the context of the game, the other ways you tried to impact the game and the fact that you had four guys step up in meaningful ways to help us win offensively.”
Klay Thompson said that they don’t lose their sleep over Curry’s renditions as he has done a lot for the franchise.
“We’re never stressed or worried about No. 30,” Thompson said. “He has done so much and elevated this franchise to a place where it was hard to even imagine that he has leeway, and he can have a bad night. I just know he’ll respond. He’s one of the greatest competitors I’ve ever been around. And he’s a perfectionist, like myself. I know he’ll be thinking about the shots he missed. And that’s a good thing, because Thursday, hopefully, most of the time, he regresses to the mean, and it’s scary when he does.”
The sixth game of the series will be played on Thursday night.
