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A superb game was on the cards as the Houston Rockets were on the road to play the Golden State Warriors in Game 5 at the Oracle Arena.
Houston Rockets tied the series at 2-2 at Houston in Game 4. But in Game 5, they had no answer to the might of the Warriors at home as the Warriors won 104-99 in a really entertaining game.
In the other game of the night, the Boston Celtics succumbed to the might of the Milwaukee Bucks, losing the game 91-116 and crashing out of the playoffs.
With Game 5 of the series between coming to an end tonight and the Warriors taking a 3-2 lead to Game 6 at Houston, here are the 3 main talking points.
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#3 Houston Rockets need their supporting cast to show up
The Houston Rockets were coming into Game 5 on a hot streak, after winning both Game 3 and 4 at Houston and levelling the series at 2-2.
A huge part of this was the contribution that the Rockets got from their bench and the supporting cast of their starting 5.
Eric Gordon has been the second option on offense throughout the series and has been excellent. But in Game 5, he could only muster 19 points on 30% shooting from beyond the arc.
Clint Capela has been in a slump in this playoff series and his form improved in Games 3 and 4, but was again woeful tonight, scoring just 6 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, shooting 30%.
The second shining star of the team, Chris Paul, has not been forceful on the offense but has controlled the game throughout, yet in Game 5, he could only manage 11 points, shooting just 21%.
The bench too combined for just 19 points, with Shumpert scoring 11 of them. If the Rockets want to take this to Game 7 and move to the finals, they need to provide Harden with all the support they can.
#2 The Splash Brothers come to life... sort of
The Golden State Warriors were not in the best of form coming into Game 5, with the series tied at 2-2 and were largely carried by Kevin Durant.
With Steph Curry and Klay Thompson completely out of form in this series, people were hoping that the Splash brothers would finally break out of their slump and they did, sort of.
Klay Thompson had a superb start to the game and was shooting really efficiently in the first quarter, and led the Warriors to a 18 point lead at half time.
Thompson though, could not keep his night going and ended up with a team high 27 points, shooting 50% from the field including a key layup to finish the game.
Curry did not have a great game, but still managed to score a solid 25 points tonight. He shot just 39% from the field and his 3 point shooting woes continued, shooting under 30% tonight.
The Warriors travel to Houston for Game 6 and will really need Curry and Thompson to come back to form if they want to bury the series here and now.
#1 Kevin Durant goes down
All was going fine for the Warriors tonight, cruising with a huge lead at halftime and then in the 3rd quarter, the worst possible thing happened.
Kevin Durant, the star of their playoffs so far, went down with an apparent calf injury in the 3rd quarter, a non-contact injury.
He was in his groove, scoring 22 points, along with 5 rebounds and 4 assists in 32 minutes. His injury opens up a huge hole in the Warriors lineup now.
The Splash brothers are both very out of form and unable to get going. Draymond Green is never your first option on offense and with DeMarcus Cousins out with an injury too, the future looks bleak for the Warriors if the injury is a long term one.
The possible replacements for him right now can be Andre Iguodala, but he does not fix their offensive issues. Nobody on the roster can replace his ability to guard from 1 through 5 and his offensive game, which is second to none in the NBA right now.
