OAKLAND — Everybody and their baby’s momma, Uncle LeRoy and cousin Man-Man either showed up and tuned in to see the LA Clippers get sent fishin’ in Game 5 against the defending NBA Champs. Golden State was looking forward to some easy work and some additional rest before starting round 2 of the playoffs. However, Doc Rivers and Co. brought the noise beating them 129-121 to extend the series to a Game 6 in LA on Friday.
The homie Lou Williams came off of the bench like a straight up G and hit them up for 33 points to lead the Clippers to victory. Danilo Gallinari rocked them for a smooth 26 as Patrick Beverly brought his lunch pale and got them for 14 rebounds.
It wasn’t like Golden State played a bad game they just got beat by a team that stayed in their own identity all night for once. Doc Rivers had this to say afterwards, “I don’t want to get ahead of myself. They’re up 3-2 still, but I just loved how we played, I really did. All we talked about is being us. I told our guys, they’ve been them in the series. We have yet to put a game where we are us through the game.”
Being them allowed them to survive to see another game and that’s a good thing. Now it’s darn near impossible for them to win three in a row against the best TEAM in basketball but winning games like this will give them more confidence. After all, this is the same team that beat Golden State in Game 2 after erasing a 31-point deficit, which was the largest comeback in NBA post-season history.
So this could go to 7 games with the amount of confidence LA is playing with right now headed back to the crib on Friday.
Don’t get it twisted, KD and the Splash Brothers just didn’t lay down and die on these boyz. They put in work and just got beat. Durant finished the night with 45 points and the Splash dropped off a combined 46 points (Step 24 points and Klay 22 points). However, nobody else had double figures. Up next Game 6 in LA.