Warriors at Clippers
The Golden State Warriors got caught looking ahead to the Western Conference semifinals, and the Los Angeles Clippers made them pay. The Warriors will try to keep their focus on the present and close out the eighth-seeded Clippers when they visit Los Angeles for Game 6 on Friday.
Golden State had a chance to close out the series at home on Wednesday but suffered a 129-121 setback and bemoaned their lack of intensity after the loss. "When we get a nice lead, we just tend to relax a little bit," Warriors star Kevin Durant told reporters. "I said it before. Teams are looking for something just to get them back into the game, you know what I'm saying? If we foul a 3-point shooter or turn the rock over or we shoot a few bad shots in a row, teams get going. They'll build some confidence. Because they're already playing loose, with nothing to lose, those shots, they don't have no pressure from the start to the finish, especially as an eight-seed. So, they're coming out with some confidence already. And we kind of kept the door open with our intensity to start the game." The Clippers never lost confidence after going down 3-1 and were led by sixth man Lou Williams, who collected 33 points in the victory. "For us, our focus was to come in, extend the series and get another win on the home floor," Williams told reporters. "It's their mistake for looking ahead. So that's on them."
TV: 10 p.m. ET, ESPN, NBCS Bay Area (Golden State), FS Prime Ticket (Los Angeles)
ABOUT THE WARRIORS: Durant scored a playoff career-high 45 points on Wednesday and Stephen Curry added 24 but Golden State allowed the Clippers to shoot 54.1 percent from the floor and score 104 points through the first three quarters. "This game sucked," Warriors guard Klay Thompson told reporters. "We lost. Let's go win Friday. Let's win big. Let's freakin' win by 30, like we're capable of. But it's basketball, so I'm excited for Friday." The Warriors won Games 3 and 4 in Los Angeles by a combined 35 points.
ABOUT THE CLIPPERS: Williams averaged 34.5 points in Los Angeles' two wins in the series and 17.7 in the three losses. "He's a great scorer, just like Curry, just like Durant," Los Angeles coach Doc Rivers told reporters of Williams. "In the games in L.A., they were trapping him a lot, so we took the picks away a lot tonight and iso'ed him with space. And I thought that gave him room to work. Thought the end of the second quarter we did it over and over again. That got his rhythm. And when Lou gets his rhythm, he's tough to guard. He's been tallying in the fourth. He believes he's a closer. He is a closer. He did that tonight for us." Williams added 10 assists in the Game 5 win and had plenty of success working the pick-and-roll with forward Montrezl Harrell, who scored 24 points on 11-of-14 shooting.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Clippers SF Danilo Gallinari scored 26 points in Game 5 after totaling 25 points on 7-of-33 shooting in the two previous games.
2. Curry is 30-of-31 from the free-throw line in the series.
3. Los Angeles PG Patrick Beverley recorded series highs of 17 points and 14 rebounds in Game 5.