What the Warriors are saying after winning Game 5 to get one win away
from NBA championship
Andrew Wiggins stepped up in major ways in a 104-94 win over the Celtics
that gave the Warriors a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven NBA Finals.
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 13: Golden State Warriors’ Andrew
Wiggins #22 celebrates his basket with Stephen Curry #30 in the fourth
quarter of Game 5 of the NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics at the
Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, June 13, 2022. (Jane
Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 13: Golden State Warriors’ Andrew
Wiggins #22 celebrates his basket with Stephen Curry #30 in the fourth
quarter of Game 5 of the NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics at the
Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, June 13, 2022. (Jane
Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
By ALEX SIMON | asimon@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: June 13, 2022 at 9:22 p.m. | UPDATED: June 14, 2022 at 6:38 a.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2022/06/13/what-the-warriors-are-saying-after-winning-game-5-to-get-one-win-away-from-nba-championship/

The Warriors brought themselves one win away from an NBA championship
with a Game 5 win on Monday night. And the guy who led them there was
Andrew Wiggins.

The 27-year-old had his second brilliant game in a row, leading the
Warriors with 26 points and 13 rebounds on the night and helping Golden
State’s defense lock down the Celtics en route to a 104-94 win.

It was a night where Stephen Curry didn’t make a 3-pointer at all, going
0-for-9, making it the first playoff game he’s ever gone without a
3-point make and ending an NBA-record 132 straight playoff games with a
3-pointer.

Curry did score 16 points, mostly by attacking the basket, like so many
on Golden State did all night. No one did that better all night than
Wiggins (who went 0-for-6 from 3-point range himself), though Klay
Thompson scored 21 points and made five from deep, Gary Payton II added
15 points and Jordan Poole contributed 14 — including an impressive
buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter.

Now, Golden State is one win away from their seventh championship in
franchise history and fourth with the Curry-Thompson-Green and coach
Steve Kerr core. They’ll have the luxury of not needing to win on
Thursday in Boston to win the series, but they will surely try to end it
on the parquet floor.

Here’s what the Warriors are saying after the win:

STEVE KERR

On Wiggins’ renewed rebounding effort:

I think throughout the playoffs, really, he’s rebounded well. I think
it’s just a sense of what’s needed and being on this team, where he’s
got veteran guys who are helping him to understand what we need from
him, and he’s just using his athleticism in a lot of different ways.
He’s just been fantastic, not just in this series but throughout the
playoffs.

On winning with Curry having an off night:

Well, the key to our game is defense, and Steph was a big part of that.
They were trying to attack him over and over again, and he held up
really well. I thought Gary Payton and Wiggs and Draymond really keyed
our defensive effort to hold that team to 94 points. That’s what it
takes to win a Finals game. It’s got to be about the defense. I think
Steph was probably due for a game like this. He’s been shooting the ball
so well that, at some point, he was going to have a tough night. But
we’ve got a lot of talent and a lot of depth that can make up for that,
and the guys did a good job of that tonight.

On if Boston’s defense impacted Curry:

It was both. Boston did a really good job defensively, as we would
expect. They are a great defensive team. I thought they put more
pressure on him early in pick-and-roll. And Steph missed some open ones,
too. So it’s always a combination. But even for the best shooter in the
world, you know, games like this happen. And fortunately they don’t
happen too often. I like Steph coming off of a game like this, too. I
like his ability to bounce back. So to be able to win the game with our
defense, with our depth, is a great team effort.

On how much poise matters at this point of the season:

I thought that was the most important part of the game tonight because
we had a 12-point lead at the half, and they came and just stormed right
through us in that third quarter for the first, whatever it was, eight,
nine minutes. And that was a crucial part of the game for us to respond
to that. Jordan hit a couple big ones late third and then had a good
stretch to start the fourth as well. But the response to Boston’s run to
me was the key to the game.

On Green’s bounceback night:

That’s a guy I’ve been watching for eight years. He’s always over the
place defensively. He’s distributing the ball. He’s bringing that
intensity and competitiveness and energy. I thought Draymond was brilliant.

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DRAYMOND GREEN

On his performance tonight:

I felt more like myself, aggressive on both ends of the ball, but I felt
a little more like myself in Game 4 as well, after an atrocious Game 3.
But you’ve just got to continue to build. Tonight is a great start, and
I look forward to going into Game 6 with the same energy and effort.

On responding to big Boston third quarter right away in the fourth:

I think the way we responded in the third quarter was huge, and Jordan
hitting that shot right before the clock expired was a great momentum
boost for us. You know, when a team goes on a run like they did — and it
was more than a run — they pretty much dominated the entire third
quarter. For us to still go into the fourth quarter with the lead,
that’s huge. And I think that was something that we could build on, and
we did. You know, coming out there in the fourth quarter, we were able
to get stops, and we got out in transition, got a couple easy buckets,
and that was huge for us.

On Wiggins building trust with Warriors:

That trust has been building for two and a half years now since he got
here. A lot of people looked at that trade like, oh, that’s another
piece they can move. We looked at the trade from the very beginning like
that is a guy who can fit next to a healthy group absolutely well. When
he first came here, and I’ll never forget, it was when Thibs [Tom
Thibodeau] wasn’t with the Knicks, and Thibs was like, you’re going to
love him. He competes. He defends. And he was telling us Jimmy loved
him. And we all know how Jimmy Butler is. If you have any softness to
you, Jimmy don’t like you. That’s how Jimmy is cut. He’s continued to
show that. He’s continued to get better. He’s taken on every challenge
that we have thrown in front of him. And that’s been huge. And we need
him to do that for one more win.

On if winning when Curry makes zero 3-pointers is extra satisfying:

No, I don’t think there’s a different type of satisfaction. A win is a
win. Whether Steph gets 43, 10, 4, or whether he finishes with 16-for-22
shooting, a win is a win. Obviously, we have spoke about helping him,
and I don’t think he’s been out there helpless, like that’s the
narrative. But everybody’s doing their part, and tonight, a night that
he didn’t have it going, we found offense elsewhere, and that’s kind of
what it’s been. On the same token, if he’s got it going, we’re going to
be heavy Steph Curry. That’s just what it is. The whole notion of this
guy doesn’t — he doesn’t have help, well, you’ve got 43, he’s going to
keep shooting, and we’re going to do all that we can to get him shooting
it. It was huge. Now, that’s good for us. He was 0-for-9 from three.
He’s going to be livid going into Game 6, and that’s exactly what we need.

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>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 13: Golden State Warriors’ Andrew
Wiggins (22) reacts to missing a shot against Boston Celtics in the
third quarter of Game 5 of the NBA Finals at the Chase Center in San
Francisco, Calif., on Monday, June 13, 2022. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News
Group)