Golden State Warriors: 5 Takeaways From Game 5 vs. Thunder

1. It’s Going To Take A Lot More In Game 6

On a related note, there wasn’t much evidence in Game 5 that should have the Warriors feeling confident heading into a brutal Game 6 on the road. In a must-win game, at home, for a 73-win defending champion team, the Warriors still struggled to close out the Thunder.

As good as avoiding elimination might feel, it’s going to take an even better performance against this unrelenting Thunder squad to force a decisive Game 7.

In OKC, where the Dubs have lost both games by a combined 52 points, that kind of play won’t be enough. Loud City is about to be INSANE, and on a neutral court, the Thunder probably would’ve won Game 5.

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They’ve looked like the better team for most of this series, and in front of their home fans, they’ll take advantage of the chance to close out this dangerous opponent.

Bearing that in mind, the Warriors have to play the best basketball of their lives in Game 6. They need Green to knock down threes. They need the bench to show up on the road, they need to get off to a fast start to prevent the crowd from feeding off early momentum, and they need Klay to enter heat check mode.

But most of all, they need Curry to recapture MVP form and go off for 6-8 threes while staying aggressive in attacking the basket.

In both road games in this series, the Warriors were just fine in the first quarter before getting lambasted in the second period. Rather than play from behind, the Warriors have to come out and sucker punch Oklahoma City before they know what’s hit them.

In Game 5, the Dubs did everything they needed to. They finished even with the Thunder on the boards, their bench outscored OKC’s reserves by 17, they held a 13-point advantage in fast break points, they were a +18 in points in the paint and they attempted 10 more free throws, going 31-for-34 from the line.

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It’s going to take a similar effort in Game 6. It’s going to take fewer than 16 turnovers, it’s going to require a Curry explosion and it’s going to take a couple more triples going down. Game 5 was a solid, necessary step toward making history. Now comes the hard part.