Kevin Durant drove coast-to-coast just before halftime for a monster two-handed slam.
Klay Thompson swished a turnaround fadeaway as the halftime buzzer sounded and scurried for the tunnel hands raised high in triumph. Stephen Curry
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Draymond Green pounded the glass at every chance for another spectacular rebounding night.
The defending champions are back, all right. They are rolling. And Curry could be close to putting on a uniform again.
”I hope, but I’m not going to expect it because I don’t want to get my hopes up and not have them fulfilled,” Thompson said. ”If he doesn’t play, we’re prepared. If he does play, hallelujah.”
Golden State has endured barely a blip so far, losing only Game 4 of its first-round series against San Antonio before closing out the Spurs with Tuesday night’s 99-91 victory.
They will open the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinals against New Orleans in Saturday’s Game 1 at Oracle Arena. Former Warriors top assistant Alvin Gentry coaches the Pelicans.
”Well, fortunately, Alvin Gentry really doesn’t know what he’s doing,” coach Steve Kerr cracked. ”That’s a joke.”
For weeks ahead of the playoffs, the Warriors hardly looked like the super team that dominated through last year’s postseason. Yet Kerr and his players insisted all along they would find another level and groove when the stage got bigger in April – and they were spot on in those sentiments.
The defense has been stellar.
And the Warriors could be at full strength again soon
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The three other All-Stars and a cast of reliable role players have handled things beautifully without him.
”We’re a championship team. We know what type of defense we need to play,” Green said. ”I think throughout the regular season, you want to get there every night, but it’s just not realistic, especially coming off a championship.”
Sure, Golden State might not make another remarkable, record-setting 16-1 run through the postseason again, but Kerr’s pass-happy bunch sure looks to be back in top form going into the next round.
And Green is leading the way by doing everything on both ends as usual. He grabbed a playoff-career high 19 rebounds in Game 5 after getting 18 his previous outing.
”We expect him to continue to play with this edge because when he does and he’s played with great emotion and passion, that’s when he’s at his best,” Thompson said.
Curry will be re-evaluated later this week as he continues to do more on-court work recovering from a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee.
He got hurt March 23 on the very night he returned from a six-game absence with his latest ankle injury. It was bad luck, too, as center JaVale McGee fell into him.
Soon
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”Steph has been coming into the gym every day working and he’s doing his thing and we are doing ours,” Kerr said. ”We are just hoping for the best. Not making any predictions.”
Golden State has won a franchise-record 12 consecutive postseason home games and 20 of the last 22 in the playoffs overall.
Kerr will push his players to keep the momentum from this series and build off all of the things the Warriors did so well.
”We played hard. We played really hard,” he said. ”We played together and stayed with it. We held them to 37 percent shooting tonight which is great. Our defensive effort for the five games was fantastic. It’s obviously going to get more difficult now as we go, so we’ve got to just keep going.”
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Oakland Athletics right-hander Trevor Cahill is as flummoxed as anyone by his extreme home/road splits this season.
The veteran right-hander has a sparkling 0.87 ERA in eight starts at the Oakland Alameda Coliseum in 2018 but owns a 6.62 mark in seven road outings this season.
“I think it’s just baseball,” Cahill said.
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Athletics manager Bob Melvin doesn’t have an answer, either.
“I haven’t seen any difference as far as his stuff goes,” Melvin said.
Whatever the reason for the glaring discrepancy, the A’s will be counting on Cahill (5-2, 3.12 ERA) to buck the trend Thursday night when they open a four-game series against the Minnesota Twins at Target Field in Minneapolis.
Cahill is 1-1 with a 4.30 ERA in six career appearances, including four starts, against Minnesota. He has not faced the Twins this year
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Oakland fell one game back of the Houston Astros in the American League West race Wednesday with a 4-2 loss against the Texas Rangers. The Athletics had won two straight and four of their last five before Wednesday’s setback and have compiled a 13-5 record in August. .
“We’ve been playing great and bringing the same attitude every day,” Melvin said of his team, which entered Wednesday’s game with a .264 collective batting average and a 2.64 ERA in the first 17 games this month.
That level of play, as well as the A’s attitude, have propelled them into the AL playoff picture. Though they’re right behind front-running Houston in the West, they will hold a comfortable 4 1/2-game lead over Seattle for the second AL wild card when they take the field against the Twins, whose postseason dreams were dashed weeks ago.
Minnesota is using these last few weeks to evaluate its young talent, including Thursday starter Kohl Stewart.
Stewart posted a 4.76 ERA with Double-A Chatanooga to start the season and earned his first big league call-up after going 0-3 with a 3.98 mark in seven appearances (five starts) for Triple-A Rochester.
He allowed three runs over 4 1/3 innings Aug. 12 in his major league debut at Detroit and allowed three more runs his next time out, but lasted just 2 2/3 innings in the latter game, a 7-5 loss to the Tigers on Saturday in Minneapolis. The 23-year-old only Stewart (0-1, 7.71) allowed three hits in that outing but walked four while throwing just 31 of his 65 pitches for strikes.
“You just can’t fall behind guys like that, can’t walk guys
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Despite those struggles, manager Paul Molitor opted to leave Stewart in the rotation for another go-round after sitting down with him for a postgame chat.
“It’s a learning experience. I just talked to him about, it’s not so much executing (or) what you’re throwing, it’s, ‘What are you feeling?'” Molitor said. “You’ve got to really be able to seize the moment in terms of controlling your emotions, and do what you do. And it just seemed like it got a little fast.”
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