Thompson, Curry carry Warriors to West finals
Stephen Curry missed one week with a sprained ankle and two more with a sprained knee.
Thompson scored 33 points and Curry added 29 as Golden State earned a 125-121 victory at Oracle Arena.
The Warriors took the series in five games to advance to the Western Conference finals for the second consecutive year.
Or, as head coach Steve Kerr said, “We had to fight, scrap, claw and do everything possible.”
Game 5 included more drama than the raucous capacity crowd probably expected.
The Warriors were nursing a two-point lead when Lillard (28 points) missed a 17-foot jumper that would have tied the score with 42 seconds left.
[...] the freshly reminted Most Valuable Player stepped back to create space and buried a 26-foot shot with 24 seconds remaining.
Allen Crabbe made a short shot in the lane to cut the lead to three, but Curry cemented the outcome with four free throws in the waning seconds.
“He makes big-time shots,” Portland head coach Terry Stotts said of Curry.
The Warriors played the second half without Bogut, who left the game with the strained right adductor (hip).
Green tweaked his ankle late in the third quarter, briefly retreated to the locker room for treatment and came back to play in pain in the fourth quarter.
Festus Ezeli replaced Bogut to start the second half, which didn’t really change the way the Warriors played.
[...] the Warriors chipped away to reach the conference finals again.