Clutch denies clinch
Golden St. pulls out win despite losing Durant again
TORONTO — Canada came for a coronation and left, inexplicably, with a headache.
The Golden State Warriors staved off elimination by beating the Toronto Raptors 106-105 on Monday night, withstanding the loss of Kevin Durant and a brilliant fourth-quarter push from Kawhi Leonard to claim Game 5 and make it a 3-2 NBA Finals.
The defending champs left the court in joyous disbelief after pulling off a late-game caper for the ages. Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson combined to make 12 3-pointers, including three in the final three minutes, to send the series back to Oakland on Thursday.
But a night that ended with stunned silence at Scotiabank Arena ran the gamut of emotions.
“I just told the team I didn’t know what to say,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “It’s a bizarre feeling we all have right now. It’s an incredible win and a horrible loss at the same time.”
Warriors general manager Bob Myers, choking back tears, said during a postgame news conference that Durant had sustained an Achilles injury.
“He was cleared to play tonight,” Myers said. “That was a collaborative decision. I don’t believe there’s anybody to blame. I understand this world. If you have to, you can blame me. I run our basketball operations department.
“Kevin Durant loves to play basketball and the people who questioned whether he wanted to get back to this team are wrong. He’s one of the most misunderstood people. He’s a good teammate and good person. It’s not fair.”
For a quarter, Durant provided the boosts of emotion and
talent that the Warriors have so badly needed in this series. The All-Star forward, playing for the first time in a month after suffering a right calf strain, swished his first two 3-pointers, blocked Pascal Siakam in transition and helped stake Golden State to an 8-2 lead.
Looking loose and emboldened, the Warriors drilled their first five 3-pointers, and Curry benefited from Durant’s spacecreating impact by slicing to the basket for a pair of early layups.
Durant’s potentially series-altering comeback quickly dissolved into a valiant but tragic cameo. Early in the second quarter, he struggled to burst past Siakam near midcourt. A minute later, he tried again to accelerate off the dribble past Serge Ibaka — only to come up lame and fall to the court holding his lower right leg.
The two-time Finals MVP walked gingerly to the locker room with Curry and Andre Iguodala providing emotional support. After brief cheers in the moments following his injury, the crowd chanted “KD!” as he departed for good with 11 points and two rebounds in 12 minutes.
“I really felt for him,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said. “I love KD. I love watching him play. When anybody goes down, you’re saddened by it. When one of the great players goes down, it’s almost shocking.”
The Warriors built a 13-point lead in the aftermath of Durant’s departure, but the Raptors whittled it to six by halftime and finally took the lead during a frantic fourth-quarter push led by Leonard. While Toronto missed 16 of its first 19 3-point attempts, Leonard hit four straight jumpers — including a pair of 3-pointers — to seemingly set up the first title in the Raptors’ 24-year history.
Toronto has excelled at outlasting opponents all postseason, but Golden State responded with perimeter heroics of its own: Thompson hit a 3-pointer, Curry hit another, and then Thompson hit a third to shock the home crowd and give the champs a 106-103 lead with less than a minute remaining.
Even then, they weren’t home free. A Kyle Lowry layup and a Golden State offensive foul gave Toronto a chance to win at the buzzer. The Raptors could only muster a Lowry 3-pointer from the corner, which missed badly.
Curry finished with a gamehigh 31 points and sprinted off the court in joy. Thompson added 26, including seven 3-pointers.
“They're amazing. They're amazing competitors, great shooters,” Kerr said.
Leonard, who had a team-high 26 points, went scoreless in the final three minutes.
Lowry had 18 points and Marc Gasol scored 17 for the Raptors, who were trying to give Canada its first championship in one of the traditional major sports since the Blue Jays won the World Series in 1993.
With Durant lost for the series, the Warriors still need to conjure two more victories to secure another title.
“I’m hurting deep in the soul right now, I can’t lie,” Durant wrote on Instagram shortly after the game. “But seeing my brothers get this win was like taking a shot of tequila. I got new life.”