CALIFORNIA – The Golden State Warriors made its way back to the NBA Finals after two years following its 120-110 beating of the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals on Thursday night (Friday in the Philippines) at the Chase Center in San Francisco.
Klay Thompson waxed hot with eight triples to finish with 32 points. Andrew Wiggins chipped in double-double 18 points and 10 rebounds as the Warriors wrapped up the seried at 4-1.
Draymond Green contributed 17 points, nine assists and six rebounds. Jordan Poole and West Finals MVP Stephen Curry had 16 and 15, while Kevon Looney hauled 18 rebounds to go with 10 points for GSW.
This will be the Warriors’ sixth NBA Finals appearance in the last eight seasons. They will be facing the winner of the Boston Celtics-Miami Heat series for the championship.
“We are here, we are back in the NBA Finals,” Green said. “This one is special and different because no one believed at the start of the season that this lineup can go all the way to the finals.”
The Warriors surged to a 14-5 start in Game 5 with conversions from Thompson and Looney. The Mavericks rallied to within 17-19 but a triple by Green and inside shots from Wiggins widened it to 28-20.
Thompson and Poole took over the scoring for the Warriors in the second half as the lead reached 47-34. It grew further to 69-52 at the half with consecutive points from Moses Moody.
Golden State’s lead reached its largest at 87-62 after a layup by Curry but Dallas went on a huge 15-0 scoring blast behind Luka Doncic to trim the deficit to 84-92.
The Mavericks were still hanging around at 100-110 midway in the fourth period but a layup by Green and back-to-back triples by Thompson and Curry sealed the win for the Warriors.
Doncic finished the game with 28 points, nine rebounds and six assists, while Spencer Dinwiddie drilled five triples to end up with 26 markers for the Mavericks.
BOX SCORE:
GOLDEN STATE 120 — Thompson 32, Wiggins 18, Green 17, Poole 16, Curry 15, Looney 10, Moody 7, Bjelica 5, Toscano-Anderson 0, Lee 0, Kuminga 0.
DALLAS 110 — Doncic 28, Dinwiddie 26, Finney-Smith 13, Brunson 10, Kleber 7, Ntilikina 6, Bullock 6, Burke 6, Powell 3, Bertans 3, Brown 2, Chriss 0, Green 0.
Quarterscores: 28-23, 69-52, 94-84, 120-110./PN
