Golden State Warriors: 5 Keys To Winning Without Draymond Green

1. Torrential Downpour From The Splash Brothers

The Warriors have to take care of the boards. They need a big game out of Harrison Barnes, they need Iguodala to lock up LeBron one more time and they need the bench to feed on the roars of the home crowd.

But without one more show-stopping performance from one or both of the Splash Brothers, this series is heading back to Cleveland for Game 6.

In Game 4, questions about when the droughts of Curry and Thompson would end were finally put to rest, with the duo combining for 63 points and 11 three-pointers in the pivotal road win. In Game 5, they may need to be even better.

That sounds like a ridiculous proposition after Curry dropped 38 points and seven threes in Game 4, but before that explosion, the back-to-back MVP had been averaging just 16.0 points per game.

The room for error is minuscule at this point, and it’s going to take another vintage Curry performance to make up for the loss of Golden State’s most important two-way player.

As for Thompson, the Warriors will be hoping he can back up his big words at practice Sunday and deliver another performance like Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals, when he dropped 41 points and 11 threes to carry the Dubs to victory.

Game 4 of these Finals saw Klay return to form, but his 25 points and four three-pointers marked his best game of the series. He still has room for improvement, and he’ll need to find it in Game 5.

More hoops habit: Golden State Warriors: 5 Takeaways From Game 4

With the absence of Green — the Dubs’ best defender, leading assist man, best rim protector and an honorary Splash Brother when the mood strikes him — the Dubs will need the Splash Brothers to light it up and remind the world that they are still the NBA’s ultimate trump card.