New life: Champs rally to stay alive

TORONTO — Stephen Curry scored 31 points, Klay Thompson added 26 and they led a season-saving surge that gave the Warriors a 106-105 victory over the Toronto Raptors on Monday night in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.

The Splash Brothers combined for three straight 3-pointers in the closing minutes after the Raptors had taken a six-point lead with under 31⁄ minutes remaining in front

2 of a raucous, red-shirted crowd.

The Warriors lost Kevin Durant barely a quarter after getting him back but got the win, cutting the Raptors’ lead to 3-2 and sending the series back to Oracle Arena for Game 6 on Thursday.

Kawhi Leonard scored 26 points for the Raptors, but he couldn’t get the final shot, having to give the ball up.

The two-time defending champion Warriors were minutes away from their title reign ending, having lost Durant and a 14-point lead during an emotionally exhausting game.

They had controlled Leonard for three quarters, but he scored 10 straight points in the fourth, and the Raptors were close to their first championship and a celebration that would have stretched coast to coast in Canada.

But even after everything the Warriors had lost, they still had two of the best perimeter shooters in the world on the floor. Thompson hit a 3, and Curry followed with one to tie it at 103. The Warriors got it back to Thompson, and the Raptors lost sight of him just long enough for the tiebreaking shot with 57 seconds to go.

The Raptors cut it to one when Kyle Lowry was credited with a basket, and the Raptors got a final chance when DeMarcus Cousins was called for an illegal screen. Leonard had the ball, but the Warriors forced him to pass and it ended up in the corner to Lowry, who was way off as the buzzer sounded.

Cousins had 14 points for the Warriors, and Draymond Green finished with 10 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists.

The Warriors are the only team to lose a 3-1 lead in the finals, when the LeBron James and the Cavaliers came back to win in 2016.

Now the Warriors have a chance to pull off the feat themselves, but it became more difficult after Durant, the reigning two-time finals MVP, limped off in the second quarter after he had missed the previous nine games with a strained right calf.

Durant, who scored 11 points in 12 minutes Monday, will undergo an MRI on Tuesday.