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.
Kerr demands improvements from Team USA as Olympic opener looms
United States coach Steve Kerr wants to see higher levels of intensity from his team as their Olympics campaign approaches.
Kerr was unhappy with the lacklustre displays from his side in their warm-ups against Germany and South Sudan.
Germany led 71-68 at the end of the third quarter before LeBron James conjured up 11 points in the final four minutes to give the USA a 92-88 win, while South Sudan were 20 seconds away from pulling off one of the biggest shocks in basketball history, before eventually falling to a 101-100 loss.
The USA face a dangerous Serbia side featuring reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic on Sunday, and Kerr is adamant that improvements are required if they are to win a fifth consecutive Olympic gold medal.
He said: "It's got to be 40 minutes of force and attention and focus, and we can't let teams outplay us effort and energy-wise like we did the other night against Germany, like we did against South Sudan.
“We have another level. I think we have another two levels that we can get to, but it's a collaboration, always.
"We can show them, 'Let's do this, let's do that. Let's learn personnel.'
"We got to know the shooters, know the non-shooters, all that stuff. So that's where we can help them. Where they can help themselves is just effort and energy play after play, after play. This is different."
Kerr is a four-time NBA champion as a coach, and was part of the triumphant Olympics team in Tokyo in 2021, but the Golden State Warriors boss knows the experience of the Games will only be enhanced if the USA were to come out on top again.
"This should be one of the great experiences of our lives. But the best way to make it an incredible experience is to win a gold medal," he said.
After facing Serbia, the USA will once again go up against South Sudan, this time in a competitive format, before ending the group stage with a match against Puerto Rico.
Durant warns Team USA 'everybody is a contender' in Olympic basketball tournament
Kevin Durant has warned Team USA they will not have an easy ride through the basketball tournament at the Paris Olympic Games, declaring: "Everybody is a contender".
The United States will go in search of a fifth straight men's basketball gold in the French capital, where they open their Group C campaign against Serbia on Sunday.
After that meeting with Nikola Jokic and company, the star-studded USA team featuring Durant, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Joel Embiid and a host of other NBA stars take on South Sudan and Puerto Rico.
With Steve Kerr having so much talent at his disposal, the roster has been compared to that of the 1992 'Dream Team', who took gold in Barcelona behind the efforts of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Scottie Pippen and other great names.
However, at a press conference ahead of Team USA's 2024 opener, Curry reminded reporters that the class of 1992 only faced nine other active NBA players.
Durant is expecting a much tougher assignment this year, responding to Curry by saying: "Everybody is a contender. Everyone is here for a reason.
"We're playing against 65 or 64 NBA players in Paris. So you know they're the best in the world."
Asked to identify the main players to watch from other nations, the Phoenix Suns forward said: "Giannis [Antetokounmpo] or Jokic."
While Durant adopted a cautious tone, Golden State Warriors star Curry was more bullish regarding the USA's gold medal hopes.
Quizzed on who he was most excited about facing, Curry simply said: "Whoever's in the gold medal game."
Knicks, head coach Thibodeau agree to three-year contract extension
The New York Knicks and head coach Tom Thibodeau have agreed to a three-year contract extension through the 2027-28 season.
New York went 50-32 last season to earn the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference before losing to the Indiana Pacers in the semi-finals of the play-offs.
The Knicks were also ousted in the East semis in 2022-23 and reached the play-offs during Thibodeau’s first season in 2021-22, when he won his second NBA Coach of the Year award.
Prior to 2021-22, New York’s previous post-season appearance came in 2013.
The Knicks have gone 175-143 over the last four seasons under Thibodeau, who earned his first NBA Coach of the Year award in 2011 as a rookie head coach with the Chicago Bulls.
The 66-year-old Thibodeau owns a 527-389 record in 12 seasons as a head coach with Chicago, the Minnesota Timberwolves and New York.
His teams have gone 38-47 in the post-season, and Thibodeau’s only appearance in the conference finals came in his rookie head coach season.
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