{"id":13818,"date":"2016-06-16T08:00:44","date_gmt":"2016-06-16T15:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/warriors-remain-poised-in-quest-for-title\/"},"modified":"2016-06-16T08:00:44","modified_gmt":"2016-06-16T15:00:44","slug":"warriors-remain-poised-in-quest-for-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/warriors-remain-poised-in-quest-for-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Warriors remain poised in quest for title"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND, Calif.<\/strong> \u2014 Stephen Curry sat on the bench and buried his head in his hand. Fellow Splash Brother Klay Thompson wrapped a towel around his face.<\/p>\n

This was misery to watch for the Warriors and their fired-up fans, who made for the exits early during Monday\u2019s 112-97 NBA Finals loss to the Cavaliers that sent the series back to Cleveland for a Game 6 tonight.<\/p>\n

They wanted so badly to do it for Draymond Green, do it for each other, and for their home crowd this time.<\/p>\n

Instead, Golden State is going to Ohio again. One flight the Warriors surely would have preferred not to take at this road-weary stage of another extra-long season, but it will be well worth it if they hoist a second straight trophy when these NBA Finals finally end.<\/p>\n

Their \u201cStrength in Numbers\u201d mantra was tested once more in a game that mattered so much. The Warriors lost at home for only the second time this postseason and fourth overall.<\/p>\n

Yet there\u2019s no panic now for the defending champions after LeBron James and the Cavs forced at least one more game in what has become quite the testy rematch. The Warriors lead the series 3-2.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all disappointed. We want to win,\u201d guard Shaun Livingston said. \u201cWith the stakes being what they are right now, obviously it\u2019s a gut punch. But it\u2019s the finals. It\u2019s not going to be easy. They\u2019re not going to lay down. It doesn\u2019t matter who\u2019s on the court. We\u2019ve got to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Golden State will get a boost having emotional leader and All-Star forward Green back after he sat out Game 5 serving a suspension for a Game 4 swipe at James\u2019 groin. Fans chanted \u201cFree Dray-mond! Free Dray-mond!\u201d and large cutouts of his face waved from all corners of Oracle Arena as he watched from a baseball suite next door in the Oakland Coliseum.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to win here more than anything for your fans. They deserve to see us win,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n

While Green returns for Game 6, the Warriors might be down big man Andrew Bogut. The 7-foot center sprained his left knee early in the third quarter Monday and traveled with the team to Cleveland after undergoing further tests. An update on his status was planned for Wednesday, team spokesman Raymond Ridder said.<\/p>\n

Bogut has been an imposing presence with his shot-blocking ability, but the Warriors have some depth at the position and often use a center-by-committee approach with Festus Ezeli and Marreese Speights among others such as Anderson Varejao getting regular opportunities to contribute.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s a chance he\u2019s out Thursday, our bigs are just going to have to step up. Been doing it all year,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n

Defensively, the Warriors must find a way to keep James and Kyrie Irving from going off the way they did Monday, with each scoring 41 points.<\/p>\n

Not that the always-confident Warriors are overly concerned. They are a group that bounced back from every rare loss during a record-setting, 73-win regular season. Golden State is 14-1 following a defeat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in the same place we were last year, up 3-2 heading back to Cleveland. If you told me this before the series, I would have taken it,\u201d coach Steve Kerr said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019re in a good spot. We\u2019re disappointed we didn\u2019t win tonight, but, like I said, they outplayed us. They deserved the win. And we\u2019ll go back to Cleveland and we\u2019ll play a better game for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Golden State doesn\u2019t have much further to fall after shooting a postseason-low 36.4 percent \u2014 its first game below a 40 percent clip \u2014 despite getting 37 points from Thompson with six 3-pointers and Curry\u2019s 25 with five 3s.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou tip your hat to them. They had a great night,\u201d Curry said.<\/p>\n

The Warriors are trying to close out the fifth championship in franchise history and third since moving out West from Philadelphia in 1962-63.<\/p>\n

Each of the past two since coming to the Bay Area have been clinched on the road \u2014 the first title in 40 years last June and also in 1975, when the Warriors won at Washington with a four-game sweep of the Bullets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt (stinks) that it happened tonight with the opportunity we had in front of us to close out a series at home in front of our home fans, and it\u2019s a tough feeling,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cBut you work hard in the series early to put ourselves in this position again on Thursday, and we\u2019ll be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND, Calif. \u2014 Stephen Curry sat on the bench and buried his head in his hand. Fellow Splash Brother Klay Thompson wrapped a towel around his face. This was misery to watch for the Warriors and their fired-up fans, who made for the exits early during Monday\u2019s 112-97 NBA Finals loss to the Cavaliers that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-13818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13818\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13818"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}