On a night in which the NBA’s all-time leader in three-pointers struggled, the Warriors won Game 5 on Monday night. The win came with the assistance of Andrew Wiggins, who had a huge night, leading the Warriors with 27 points to go along with 13 rebounds. It was the best game of his eight-year career.
The first-time All-Star, now in his first NBA finals, is now one win away from capturing his first NBA championship. Clearly, the Warriors second-best player throughout the series, Wiggins came off of a night in which he scored 17 points and 16 rebounds along with guarding the Celtics’ best player, Jayson Tatum on the defensive end. Using his slashing ability and long frame to contribute on the offensive end he capped off the Warriors night with a huge one-handed dunk with 2:10 left in the fourth quarter, delivering the dagger to the Celtics heart.
Stephen Curry, after a huge 43-point explosion in game 4, only contributed 16 points and eight assists but was 0-9 from three-point range, and 7-22 overall from the field, which is an uncharacteristically bad night for him. “Keep shooting, very simple”- Curry said after the game with a grin on his face. Draymond Green, who fouled out for the third time in five games in the NBA finals, says that Curry is going to be “Livid” going into a closeout game 6 in Boston, which is going to be needed because the Boston Celtics fan base will be livid as well, doing everything they can to pump their home team up in an elimination game for them. The Warriors can now win their fourth title in eight years with a win on Thursday night, and in doing so could ultimately establish them as a modern-day dynasty, similar to what Michael Jordan and the Bulls did decades ago.
The Celtics were led by Jayson Tatum’s 27 points to go along with 10 rebounds and Marcus Smart who scored late in the game to finish with 20 points. The Celtics were down twelve at the half but came surging forward in the third quarter, hitting eight consecutive three-pointers because of excellent ball movement. ith 6:22 left in the third quarter they took the lead. Jordan Poole of the Warriors made a memorable 33-footer off of the backboards to take a one-point lead at the end of the third.
The Warriors defense down the stretch forced the Celtics to take tough shots in the halfcourt forcing 18 Celtics turnovers and scoring 22 points off of those turnovers. The loss is tough for the Boston Celtics, because they played good defense, holding Stephen Curry to zero three-point shots. That defense snapped Curry’s 133 consecutive games with a playoff three-pointer streak and his 233 consecutive postseason and regular-season game three-pointer streak, both in which are records.
The Warriors lead the series 3-2 with Game 6 scheduled for June 16, 2022, at 8 PM.
Contributing writer, Christian Nix is a third-year journalism student at the University of Illinois-Springfield.