Winners and losers: Now warriors await news of Kevin Durant's injury



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The good, the bad and the doubtful of the fifth match of Wednesday night.


Game 5: Warriors 104, Rockets 99

Injury Concern: Kevin Durant

While remaining 2:11 in the third quarter of Game 5 of the Warriors-Rockets, Kevin Durant reportedly tense his right calf when he landed after a jumper. 15 feet on Iman Shumpert to advance the Warriors by three points, a shot we've seen a million times: Durant's long arms stretching over his defender, the net making him pass for him at the command. But as Durant stepped back to defend himself, something new: he reached for his leg. And he reached in one way we to have seen before – not a million times, but enough. It's hard to forget what an Achilles tendon injury looks like. This is the worst fear Durant had when he was leaving for the locker room.

A strain of calf is a relief in comparison but is still not a small thing: last season, Durant lack seven days – three games – because of a tension in the calf.

Game 5: Bucks 116, Celtics 91

Loser: Irish Greeting by Kyrie Irving

In October, at a fan party, Kyrie Irving told the crowd of TD gardeners that he wanted to sign with the team again this summer "If you want to get me back." After his second-round performance against Bucks, I'm not sure Boston will do that. In fact, he played a lot like a man who does not want this invitation. Irving shot poorly in the fifth game and was well defended, finishing with 15 points, a rebound, a helper, a robbery, three turnovers, two fouls and a multitude of missed assignments. He made only one trip on the line and scored a goal against seven from behind the bow.

Irving is one of the best guards in a congested league with them, an astute ballad and iso-adept handler who was to flourish under Brad Stevens. If Irving and his younger teammates had never faced off the field, as they have done several times this season, Boston could have achieved its full potential. This is the clear and easy reason for this Celtics season, a disappointment in every respect.. But disagreements over the locker room did not cause the Milwaukee series, a non-stark offense led by Irving, to be lost.

By ESPN Statistics and Information, Irving is the first Celtic player to have played four consecutive playoff games, making 15 or more shots and making them at less than 40% since Sam Jones in 1966. (But, hey, Jones is a member of the Hall of Fame.) Irving did both too much and not enough against Milwaukee, especially in the fifth game: he opted for riders adorned in traffic to find teammates, and in defense he was sometimes not even close enough to his man to challenge the shot.

Irving did his shopping, as he does. He went into the second quarter with 3:54 to go and scored seven in less than two minutes. But even these were unexpected, and from start to finish, there was the same degree of uncertainty in his performance in the fifth match as in his bliss in Boston all season.

Winner: The body of the ball

Let's go back to before the season starts. Remove the best player from each team in this series. So, Giannis Antetokounmpo for Milwaukee and Boston …. Irving? Jayson Tatum? Al Horford? YABU? In October, I would say that Boston has the best composition remaining. Tatum will be to be a star, I would say; Gordon Hayward has already been a star in the very recent past; Al Horford, five times All-Star, is technically still. But that was before Mike Budenholzer recovered the mess of Jason Kidd (and before Irving destroyed the chemistry of the Boston locker room) (and before Tatum trained with Kobe Bryant) (and before Hayward do not return to the field).

In the Bucks-Celtics series, Khris Middleton and Eric Bledsoe were the best complementary players. They combined 37 points to close the fifth game, catching the other Bucks player. other starter, Brook Lopez, who went 0-for-7 from behind the arc for zero point. The dollars go further too. Malcolm Brogdon played his first game after missing seven weeks. George Hill and Ersan Ilyasova recorded two figures. And then there's Pat Connaughton, who played the most minutes of all Bucks' reserves in the fifth game with 28, and who tied for a record 11 rebounds.

Loser: Paul Pierce, the prophet

Sometimes the truth can not handle the truth.

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