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The Golden State Warriors are one win away from another NBA Championship, and they have forward Andrew Wiggins to thank for their critical series-leading win on Monday night.

 

The Warriors stormed to a 104-94 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 5 of the NBA Finals at Chase Center behind Wiggins’ dominant play on both ends. 

 

The first-time all-star had 26 points and 13 rebounds, and Klay Thompson had 21 points as Golden State took a 3-2 series lead. Wiggins' forceful dunk over Celtics guard Derrick White late in the 4th quarter put an exclamation point on the victory and the biggest postseason performance of Wiggins’ career.

 

“It’s something I dreamt about for sure, being in the league, and this is the ultimate stage,” Wiggins said. “It doesn’t get bigger than this.”

 

''The bigger the challenge has been that we've thrown in front of him, the bigger he's responded. You want a guy like that. When the stage gets big, they respond and play their best basketball, and that's what he's been doing,” said Draymond Green.

 

The Warriors needed big play from Wiggins on a night when Stephen Curry went cold. After exploding for 43 points in Game 4, Curry had 16 points on 0 for 9 shooting from 3-point range in Game 5, ending his NBA-record streak of 132 straight postseason games with at least one made 3-pointer.

 

''Uh, keep shooting, very simple. I'm not afraid to go 0-fer or whatever because I'm going to keep shooting,” said Curry.

 

Warriors Coach Steve Kerr said he has no concerns that Curry will bounce back: "Games like this happen. Fortunately they don't happen too often. I like Steph coming off of a game like this."

 

The Celtics will also be looking to bounce back after an abysmal opening stretch of play on Monday night. Boston didn’t make a single 3-pointer and shot 31% from the floor in the first quarter while racking up 10 turnovers before halftime.

 

“We just got to continue to recognize the game, see the game, and make in-game adjustments and take care of the ball when it comes down to it. Another game with too many turnovers and it cost us,” said Jaylen Brown.

 

After heading to the locker room down by 12 points, the Celtics went on a 19-4 tear to open up the third quarter. A trio of Jayson Tatum 3-pointers followed by consecutive 3-pointers from Marcus Smart and Al Horford gave Boston its first lead of the game with 6:28 remaining in that period. 

 

A buzzer-beating 38-foot bank shot from Jordan Poole put the Warriors back in front, 75-74, to close out the third quarter. An untimely technical foul called on Smart, poor shooting and another five turnovers doomed the Celtics in the fourth quarter. 

 

Tatum finished with 26 points, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Celtics slow start and fourth quarter meltdown. 

 

"That's the thing we're not having throughout a full game, is consistent efforts, sustained effort, more so offensively than anything," Boston Coach Ime Udoka said. "That's the part where we got to have carryover not only game to game but quarter to quarter."

 

Golden State can secure their fourth NBA title in eight seasons with a Game 6 win on Thursday night in Boston. However, the Celtics haven't lost three consecutive games yet in the postseason, and this Warriors core knows a 3-2 series lead is far from a sure thing.

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"It does feel good but we've been here before, 2016, and we might have been overly eager," said Thompson. "So like, it feels good but we haven't done anything yet and the mission still is the same. We're all eager to get to Boston and play a great game on Thursday."

 

“It’s so exciting to be part of the finals again,” Kerr said. “You know, I think this whole season has kind of led to this, a lot of individual stories, guys getting better, guys getting healthy. Here we are, we have a chance. We have two cracks at getting one win, but we also know how difficult it’s going to be.”