The spirit that the Golden State Warriors showed in Game 5 was the stuff of legends. Despite the loss of Kevin Durant to an Achilles injury and the dominance of the Raptors towards the end of the game, the Warriors held out. Klay Thompson and Steph Curry came up trumps with decisive shots that helped the Warriors to a victory on the road that would be crucial for the NBA Finals.
[fvplayer id=”1938″]
[fvplayer id=”1922″]
Better Odds for the Warriors
With NBA Finals 2019 Game 6 just around the corner, the odds are starting to look a bit better for the Warriors. They are now 3.5 point favorites in their home Game 6. On the balance of the whole series, however, Golden State is still an underdog with +215 betting points. The Toronto Raptors are the favorites, with odds of -260 on them winning one of their remaining two games.
The record at the Oracle Arena in this series is entirely one-sided- the Raptors are already 2-0 up. Game 3 was a rout for the Raptors, helped by the absence of Thompson. The Warriors were then at the brink of elimination, but have done exceedingly well since to get back in the series.
Durant is out
They would, still, be quite disappointed with the loss of star man Kevin Durant. He scored 11 points in just 12 minutes before he was forced to walk off due to an injury. Durant surely won’t be making an appearance in the Finals again.
The Warriors certainly know a bit about a team coming back from 3-1 deficits in the NBA Finals. After all, they did famously blow a 3-1 lead in the 2016 NBA finals to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
It is Curry who is the front-man for the Warriors, with 31 points in game 5 itself. In fact, he averages 32.4 points per game in this series. Opposite him is Kawhi Leonard, whose best efforts in Game 5 weren’t enough. He averages 29.8 points, 4.4 assists, 10.6 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game.
Let us see how Game 6 unfolds.
