Celtics' Uphill Climb This Season, Now Down to Just One Game to Keep Their Title Hopes Alive
Boston has shown tremendous resiliency throughout the playoffs. But for the first time, they look like a team whose swagger, moxie and spirit may finally be broken.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Whatever we thought we knew about this Boston Celtics team, the coming days will tell us all we need to know.
The Celtics' season is truly on the brink of extinction following a 104-94 Game 5 loss to Golden State. The Warriors now lead the best-of-seven series 3-2 with a chance to claim yet another NBA title, in Game 6 in Boston on Thursday.
Boston takes pride in being a team that's seemingly at its best when the odds are stacked heavily against them, and the only true believers are the ones inside their locker room.
That is where they are now after the Warriors delivered yet another impressive performance.
When backed into a corner like they are now, they will either collapse under the enormity of the pressure or come out fighting to live another day and bring the series back to the Bay area for a winner-takes-all Game 7.
But before they can even think about that, they must first find a way to defeat a Golden State team that's playing its best, most complete basketball of the postseason.
And it's not just Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson's scoring that's getting it doen.
Golden State's defense, always taking a backseat to its explosive offense, has been getting stronger from one game to the next.
In Game 5, Boston shot just 41.3 percent from the field.
The Celtics looked like a team on quicksand for most of the first half, showing very little signs of climbing their way out of the basketball abyss they seemed to be in.
But that all changed in the third quarter as Boston opened with a 10-0 run to chip away at Golden State's lead.
Finally showing signs of life, Boston continued on its 19-4 run to start the third quarter, capped off by a 3-pointer by Al Horford which gave the Celtics their first lead of the game, 58-55.
But the Warriors, ever the resilient bunch, would spend most of the remainder of the third quarter from behind before ending the quarter with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Jordan Poole which put them ahead 75-74 going into the fourth quarter.
Boston went more than three minutes at the start of the quarter before making its first field goal.
But that basket was yet another too-little, too-late moment for the Celtics whose "Us against Everybody" mantra will be put to the ultimate test now with their season down to just one game.
Here are the Stars, Studs and Duds from Game 5 of the NBA Finals.
STARS
Klay Thompson: The deeper we get into the Finals, the better Klay Thompson seems to play. It was Thompson and not Curry delivering the big shots for Golden State. Thompson would finish the game with 21 points which included 7-for-14 shooting and five 3-pointers.
Stephen Curry: It wasn't Stephen Curry's best game, but he once again made one big shot after another. And his presence on the floor opened things up for his teammates who came up big on what was one of the few low-scoring games for Curry in the Finals. He had 16 points on 7-for-22 shooting with three rebounds and eight assists.
Jayson Tatum: After having not taken a single shot in the first seven minutes, it didn't take Jayson Tatum too long to find his rhythm. He would lead the Celtics with a double-double of 27 points and 10 rebounds along with four assists and four turnovers with a plus/minus of minus-13.
STUDS
Andrew Wiggins: The unsung hero for Golden State throughout the Finals, continues to be Andrew Wiggins. In addition to his strong play defensively, he continues to be a scoring/rebounding problem for Boston. Wiggins had yet another double-double in Game 5, scoring 26 points to go with 13 rebounds.
DUDS
Jaylen Brown: There were struggles at both ends of the floor for Jaylen Brown, all game. He had a couple of solid spurts but for the most part, he didn't deliver the kind of high-impact game Boston absolutely had to have from him in order to win. He would finish Game 5 with 18 points on 5-for-18 shooting.
Boston's turnovers: Once again, the Celtics' inability to take care of the basketball created more than a few opportunities for easy scores for the Warriors. For the game, Boston turned the ball over 18 times which led to 22 points for Golden State.
Boston's free throw shooting: This has been an on-and-off issue for the Celtics throughout the postseason. Those misses proved critical in the first half as Boston tried to rally back into the game. And the second half featured quite a few misses that only contributed to the miserable game this was for the Celtics. They would shoot just 21-for-31 (67.7 percent) from the free-throw line for the game.