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May 28, 2016

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Warriors top Thunder to stay alive

STEPHEN Curry scored 31 points, raising his arms in the early moments to awaken Golden State’s raucous crowd, as the defending champions Warriors staved off elimination with a 120-111 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 5 of the NBA Western Conference finals on Thursday night.

The MVP made a slick layup late and dished out six assists, while Klay Thompson added 27 points as the Warriors sent the best-of-seven series back to Oklahoma City for Game 6 tomorrow. Golden State trails 2-3 and is trying to become just the 10th team to rally from a 1-3 deficit.

“We ain’t going home! We’re not going home!” Curry yelled at the top of his lungs in the waning moments in Oakland.

For all the speculation about the current state of Curry’s beat-up body — that troublesome ankle, sore knee or tender elbow — he did it all.

“I thought he looked like 91 percent,” coach Steve Kerr joked. “He came out and played a really good game. That’s all I can tell you. He had an excellent night and helped us get it done.”

Led by Curry, the Warriors looked like their old winning selves again.

Kevin Durant scored 40 points and Russell Westbrook added 31 points, eight assists, seven rebounds and five steals for the Thunder, trying for the fifth NBA finals appearance in franchise history and first championship since moving from Seattle.

The record-setting, 73-win Warriors, coming off their first back-to-back defeats all season, had been blown out in two losses at Oklahoma City by a combined 52 points.

Kerr called for Australian center Andrew Bogut to do more and the 7-footer delivered with a playoff career-high 15 points and 14 rebounds for his second double-double this postseason and seventh of his career.




 

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