Stephen Curry led a balanced attack with 27 points and the Golden State Warriors notched a season-extending 121-106 win over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals on Wednesday.

Facing elimination, the defending champion Warriors took the lead late in the second quarter and never trailed again to force the series back to Los Angeles for Game 6 on Friday.

Andrew Wiggins had 25 points, seven rebounds and five assists, while Draymond Green had his best game of the series with 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting, nine boards and four assists.

Gary Payton II (13 points), Jordan Poole (11) and Klay Thompson (10) also reached double figures for Golden State.

The Warriors led by as many as 17 in the third quarter, but the Lakers trimmed the deficit to 104-95 on Austin Reaves' 3-pointer with 5:25 remaining. Curry, however, sank a jumper and a three to put Golden State up 14.

LeBron James scored 25 points and Anthony Davis had 23 and nine rebounds before he left in the fourth quarter after taking what appeared to be an inadvertent elbow to the head from Golden State's Kevon Looney. Davis grabbed his head grimacing before going to the locker room late in the game.
 

Brunson goes distance as Knicks force Game 6

Jalen Brunson scored 38 points and the New York Knicks kept their season alive with a 112-103 victory over the Miami Heat in Game 5 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series.

Brunson played all 48 minutes, shot 12 of 22 from the field and hit 4 of 10 3-pointers while adding nine rebounds and seven assists.

RJ Barrett added 26 points, including four free throws in the final two minutes to preserve the lead, and Julius Randle scored 24 with four threes to get New York within 3-2 in the series.

Jimmy Butler led Miami with 19 points and Bam Adebayo had 18 and eight boards. Duncan Robinson scored 17 points and hit three of his five 3s in the fourth quarter as the eighth-seeded Heat nearly came all the way back after trailing by 19 in the third quarter.

Miami got the deficit down to 103-101 before Isaiah Hartenstein slammed home a follow dunk with 2:07 left. Barrett followed with a pair of free throws and hit another two after Adebayo's dunk to make it 109-103 with under a minute remaining.

The fifth-seeded Knicks will try to force the series back to New York with a road win in Game 6 on Friday.