{"id":47614,"date":"2022-06-14T00:33:30","date_gmt":"2022-06-14T04:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=47614"},"modified":"2022-06-14T00:33:30","modified_gmt":"2022-06-14T04:33:30","slug":"2022-nba-finals-game-5-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2022\/06\/14\/2022-nba-finals-game-5-recap\/","title":{"rendered":"2022 NBA Finals Game 5 Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"

This closely-matched battle of titans featured another memorable clash in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. The Golden State Warriors bested the Boston Celtics 104-94 after many momentum swings. The game wasn\u2019t as close as the final score indicates, as both teams emptied their benches. The outcome moves the Warriors one win away from the Larry O\u2019Brien trophy. <\/span><\/p>\n

2022 NBA Finals Game 5 Recap<\/h2>\n

NBA Finals Game 5 Recap<\/b><\/h3>\n

Game 5 of the NBA Finals started with the Warriors bombarding the Celtics with a 17-6 run. The home team locked up the guys in green with stifling defense, and Boston contributed by committing some baffling turnovers. <\/span>Andrew Wiggins<\/b><\/a> and <\/span>Stephen Curry<\/b><\/a> overcame poor three-point shooting by the team to lead the offense. <\/span>Draymond Green<\/b><\/a> maneuvered around <\/span>Robert Williams<\/b><\/a> for multiple at-rim finishes, and <\/span>Klay Thompson<\/b><\/a> led a strong defensive effort against <\/span>Jaylen Brown<\/b><\/a>\u2019s rim attacks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Boston had their own shooting struggles in the first half, but those dissolved completely in the third quarter. <\/span>Jayson Tatum<\/b><\/a>, the one Celtic scoring well, erupted as the Celtics started the quarter with a 10-0 run. Boston trimmed a 12-point deficit to just one as they stole the third-quarter mysticism the Warriors possessed in every other game this series. The Warriors rode the vibes from <\/span>Jordan Poole<\/b><\/a>\u2019s banked-in three to end the third by going on a 10-0 run of their own to start the fourth. Boston could never seriously threaten the Warriors after that point.<\/span><\/p>\n

This game was the inverse of Game 3, where Golden State clawed back into the game with a big third quarter. The Warriors didn\u2019t seem to have the energy to complete the comeback then, and Boston looked tired late tonight. Boston changed their defensive strategy to commit two defenders to Curry more often. The non-Curry Warriors burned the strategy in the first half and the fourth quarter, especially Wiggins.<\/span><\/p>\n

NBA Finals Game 5 G.O.A.T.<\/b><\/h3>\n

Andrew Wiggins was the Greatest Player of All Time (of NBA Finals Game 5). After being <\/span>named the runner-up<\/span><\/a> for this prestigious award in Game 4, Wiggins grabbed it by simply playing the best basketball game he\u2019s ever played. He <\/span>finished<\/span><\/a> with 26 points on 23 shots, and shrugged off missing all six of his threes by dashing to the basket and cashing a variety of swooping layups. Wiggins worked for midrange jumpers off the dribble and found the range on a spinning hook shot he hit multiple times after driving on Williams.<\/span><\/p>\n

Curry came back to earth from his otherworldly start to the Finals and missed all nine of his threes. He did damage in the paint, however, and saw four teammates reach double figures to go with his 16 points. Thompson was steady on both ends tonight, and <\/span>Gary Payton II<\/b><\/a> added a surprising 15 points while being a perfect 5-5 from two. \u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

NBA Finals Game 5 Goat<\/b><\/h3>\n

Jaylen Brown has arguably been the best Boston Celtic in this series. Heading into tonight, Brown had exceeded 20 points in three out of four games. His fierce drives and pinpoint passes led the Celtics\u2019 fourth-quarter comeback in Game 1. He matched steady production with explosive on-court impact, but that impact waned considerably in Game 5. Brown finished just 5 for 18 from the field and committed 5 turnovers. He generally looked out-of-sorts as Green and Thompson matched his physicality and moved their feet well to keep him away from the rim.<\/span><\/p>\n

Boston desperately needed Brown\u2019s production; <\/span>Marcus Smart<\/b><\/a> had 20 to aid Tatum\u2019s 27-point effort, but it wasn\u2019t enough to keep the game competitive. Brown also lost the ball while dribbling twice in a row midway through the fourth quarter to kill their comeback hopes; Boston had 18 as a team.<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking ahead to NBA Finals Game 6<\/b><\/h3>\n

Frankly, there aren\u2019t too many adjustments readily apparent for either coach. That\u2019s typical once a playoff series reaches this point. Steve Kerr\u2019s decision to start <\/span>Otto Porter Jr.<\/b><\/a> has been a mixed bag; the Warriors started well this game, but the Celtics were able to gain an advantage on the glass in Game 4. Still, it seems likely this move stays as Golden State has more room to drive on offense when Green and <\/span>Kevon Looney<\/b><\/a> aren\u2019t on the floor together.<\/span><\/p>\n

Boston is limited by Williams\u2019 health issues, but they need him on the floor as much as possible. He contests every Warriors rim attempt; even the \u00fcber-athletic Wiggins hasn\u2019t found a way to consistently finish against \u201cTime Lord.\u201d Moreover, Curry has found <\/span>tremendous success<\/span><\/a> attacking <\/span>Al Horford<\/b><\/a> and Robert Williams<\/span>\u00a0in this series. Boston has personnel to execute a wider variety of strategies on Curry than they\u2019ve tried thus far. Could mimicking Toronto\u2019s box-and-one from the 2019 Finals allow them to shut Curry\u2019s water off and scramble out to defend the other Warriors?<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s fair to wonder if Boston should be even more intent on firing threes. Game 5 featured the Celtics\u2019 fewest attempts (32) and percentage (11 for 32, 34.4%) in this series. Every Boston offensive possession without Robert Williams should feature all 5 Celtics standing outside the arc. Smart posting up against Curry and Poole hasn\u2019t produced points consistently, and Tatum isolations in the midrange usually end in Tatum midrange jumpers. The goal of every Celtics play should be to drive (even multiple drives if possible) and kick to an open three-point shooter. The Warriors send multiple help defenders to the paint in their defensive scheme and Boston needs to get those defenders to think more and not allow them to react instinctively. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This closely-matched battle of titans featured another memorable clash in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. The Golden State Warriors bested the Boston Celtics 104-94 after many momentum swings. The game wasn\u2019t as close as the final score indicates, as both teams emptied their benches. The outcome moves the Warriors one win away from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4175,"featured_media":47615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,5,25],"tags":[4616,4483,212,409,450,798,1909,70,428,1588,48],"class_list":["post-47614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-celtics","category-warriors","tag-2022-nba-finals","tag-2022-nba-playoffs","tag-andrew-wiggins","tag-draymond-green","tag-jaylen-brown","tag-jayson-tatum","tag-jordan-poole","tag-klay-thompson","tag-marcus-smart","tag-robert-williams","tag-stephen-curry"],"modified_by":"Kunning Chen, Department Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}