The Houston Rockets closed out the Utah Jazz in Game 5. Can the Golden State Warriors do the same against New Orleans Pelicans? We will have live analysis throughout both games, and join the discussion in the comments. Catch up on yesterday's results here.
• Chris Paul is finally headed to the Western Conference finals after taking over the fourth quarter.
• Donovan Mitchell's X-rays were negative. He will get more tests in Salt Lake City.
• Draymond Green had already had an eventful game — before the first quarter in Oakland was done.
It's all but over here in Oakland.
Golden State enters the fourth quarter with a 95-75 lead over New Orleans and stands just 12 minutes away from the showdown with Houston the entire basketball world has spent the past six months waiting for.
Stephen Curry (26 points), Klay Thompson (23) and Kevin Durant (24) have nearly combined to score as many points (73) as the entire Pelicans team (75). And they've done so while shooting 29 for 44 from the floor, including 6 for 15 from three.
Anthony Davis (26 points and 19 rebounds) and Jrue Holiday (19 points, eight rebounds and eight assists) have fought admirably. But at the end of the day, the Warriors simply have too much firepower.
And assuming nothing crazy happens in the next 12 minutes, they'll get the series victory they were expected to.
So, remember that 10-0 run to start the third quarter for the Warriors?
Yeah, about that …
It's now 25-4.
And Stephen Curry has gone off for 11 points in the quarter. And he, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson have scored all 25 points.
Yes, I'd say the Warriors are ready to get to the Rockets, and the Western Conference finals.
Warm up the bus.
If the first two minutes of the third quarter are any indication, the Warriors want this series over with.
A 10-0 run powered entirely by Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry has allowed the Warriors to blow open this game, taking a 69-56 lead.
Durant has 22 points, Thompson 21 and Curry 15 – the only three players for the Warriors to be in double-figures currently. But when three of the best scorers in the league all are on one team, that's all it needs to take a run.
The Pelicans are doing their best to get in the way of all of the talk about the impending Western Conference finals showdown between the Warriors and Rockets.
Behind outstanding first halves from both Anthony Davis (18 points and 10 rebounds) and Jrue Holiday (14 points, six rebounds and six assists), the Pelicans are within striking distance of the Warriors, though Golden State still leads 59-56. The problem for the Pelicans, as it has been throughout this series, is they just don't have a lot of other options to turn to.
Nikola Mirotic has again struggled, going just 2 for 6 for six points in the first half. Rajon Rondo has seven points and six assists, but is 3 for 7 from the field. Meanwhile, New Orleans already has 10 turnovers that have turned into 17 points for Golden State – a killer against a team that plays as quickly as the Warriors do.
After a hot start, Klay Thompson has cooled down slightly – although he still leads all scorers with 19 points. Kevin Durant has 16 on 6-for-10 shooting, and Stephen Curry has 13 and five assists while going 6 for 9 from the floor.
Golden State should win this game. And, frankly, it needs to, in order to give Curry as much time to rest and round back into form as possible. It will be a surprise if the Warriors can't close this out in the second half.
That said, if Davis and Holiday keep playing this well, New Orleans will at least have a shot.
This week's Monday Morning Post Up featured an intriguing article from a friend, Bleacher Report's Tom Haberstroh, about whether Stephen Curry will actually look right in his return from a sprained MCL in these playoffs.
After Curry had a stellar performance in his return in Game 2 (he had 28 points on 8-for-15 shooting overall, including 5 for 10 from three, to go with seven assists), it's been a mixed bag.
Curry went 6 for 19 and scored 19 points in Golden State's loss in Game 3 in New Orleans, then went 8 for 17 (including 4 for 9 from three) in scoring 23 points in the Pelicans' Game 4 victory.
In the first half of Game 5, he's continued to make strides forward.
Curry has 13 points and five assists – while going 6 for 9 from the field – as Golden State has a 59-56 halftime lead. There's obviously plenty of rust to shake off from five-and-a-half weeks on the sidelines. But if Curry is healthy for the assumed start of the Western Conference finals Monday in Houston, the Warriors will still be favorites to win and advance to a fourth straight NBA Finals.
The Pelicans already have their hands full trying to chase down the Warriors in Game 5 on the road to extend this series by another game.
Doing so with foul trouble for their two best players will be even harder.
Jrue Holiday and Anthony Davis are both playing with two fouls midway through the second quarter – the only players on either team with more than one foul each so far. Both have been outstanding for the Pelicans – Holiday has 12 points, four rebounds and four assists while Davis has nine points and eight rebounds – as New Orleans trails by nine.
With both of them cooking, New Orleans has a chance. But that only will last as long as they both can stay on the court. Foul trouble could derail that.
Green, who has had multiple dust-ups with Rajon Rondo during the series, actually played the role of peacemaker after Kevin Durant and Nikola Mirotic got into it after Mirotic fouled Durant while he was taking a jumper.
Then Green was up to his usual tricks when, as Rondo was conferring with Pelicans assistant Darren Erman, he stuck his head into the huddle – something neither Rondo nor Erman noticed until an official pulled Green away.
Making that second moment even funnier was that Erman was a former assistant with the Warriors. So not only does Green have history with Rondo, but with Erman, as well.
After seeing the Rockets advance to the Western Conference finals earlier Tuesday, it appears the Warriors are determined to join them there.
Klay Thompson already has 14 points midway through the first quarter as the Warriors have taken a 23-16 lead over the Pelicans. Thompson already has nine shots – hitting six, including two threes – to help the Warriors get out to their early lead.
Golden State has also already drawn a foul on four of New Orleans' five starters – something that could become a factor later in the game.
It was encouraging news, given how bad the injury initially looked, and takes some of the edge off what was a disappointing end to both Mitchell and Utah's season. Still, the Jazz have plenty to be encouraged about after a terrific season that saw them get back to the same place they were a year ago despite losing all-star forward Gordon Hayward in free agency last summer.
The emergence of Mitchell quickly made the loss of Hayward fade from people's minds. For more on Mitchell, read my feature on the workout last May that convinced the Jazz they had to do whatever they could to land him in last year's NBA Draft.
It appeared he decided in the fourth quarter of Game 5 of Jazz-Rockets that he was going to make sure Houston made it that far all on his own.
Paul finished with 41 points, seven rebounds and 10 assists for Houston, including scoring or assisting on Houston's final 18 points in the fourth quarter – scoring 15 of them and hitting P.J. Tucker for a three for the rest. It was a remarkable sequence, as Paul wound up scoring 20 of Houston's 37 fourth quarter points (and assisting on two threes) as the Rockets overcame a three-point deficit after three quarters to pull away and take down the pesky Jazz to get to the Western Conference finals.
Houston will now wait to see if the Golden State Warriors can beat the New Orleans Pelicans in Game 5 of their series – which would set up the showdown everyone has been waiting all season for: Rockets-Warriors in the Western Conference finals. If Golden State wins tonight, that series will begin Monday in Houston, with Game 2 being Wednesday and Game 3 being back in Oakland on Sunday.
The entire Western Conference finals will be on TNT.
Donovan Mitchell's incredible third quarter – one that saw him score 22 points on 8-for-11 shooting – dragged the Jazz back into this game.
Then, unfortunately, a false step appeared to end his night.
As Mitchell was trying to go around James Harden early in the fourth quarter, he went down hard, and needed assistance going back to Utah's locker room, favoring his left leg.
TNT's cameras later caught Mitchell walking in the hallway outside the visiting locker room without his left shoe on, but with no additional assistance – a positive development given how ugly Mitchell's injury initially looked like it could be.
That said, the Jazz are going to have a very difficult time managing to win this game without their leading scorer. A tough break in a series that has had one after another for Utah from an injury standpoint.
There has been plenty of talk, in the wake of Steve Kerr saying he wasn't a fan of the nickname "Hamptons Five," about what the name of Golden State's devastating smallball lineup should be.
Pelicans Coach Alvin Gentry, when asked about it before Game 5 of Warriors-Pelicans here in Oakland, had his own idea for what it could be called.
Gentry's ultimate point, however, was the correct one. The Warriors optimal lineup is the best in the NBA – and
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