Spurs grab 3-2 lead over Rockets

After Game 5, Leonard’s teammates said that they imagined the injury was pretty serious because their most important player was on the bench during the most important time of the game.

“Everybody contributed. It was a real team effort with (32) assists and just (seven) turnovers”.

“I was trying to keep them in front of me”, Harden said.

Jonathon Simmons, who continues to have a tremendous series, had 12 points while playing lockdown defense on James Harden and readily attacking him off the dribble on the other end of the floor.

Danny Green then drew a foul attempting a lay-up to give San Antonio a 109-107 buffer, with a further free throw making it 110-107.

These teams matched the number one defense in the National Basketball Association, the Spurs, against the number one scoring offense of the Rockets. San Antonio compiled a 60-37 rebounding advantage and limited Houston to 28.6 percent shooting.

A marginally better sign came after the game, when Leonard stood on both ankles in front of a bank of reporters and declared his intentions for Thursday’s potential close-out game in Houston. The Rockets led the Spurs by four points at the time Leonard suffered his injury, and they blew a fourth-quarter lead with the two-time Defensive Player of the Year on the bench. “Going to take as much time as possible, see what he feels like, see what I see and make a decision”. “So I think everybody else picked it up very well”. He did a good job, whether it was distributing or scoring. “Hat’s off to them”.

Ginobili had 12 points, seven rebounds and five assists in 32 minutes – the most minutes he had played in a game since 2014. With 15 seconds remaining, Patty Mills knocked the ball away from Gordon and forced a jump ball.

Leading 31-24 entering the second, the Spurs levied the knockout blow with a 19-3 run fueled largely by reserves.

Simmons responded by scoring 10 points on 5-for-13 shooting in 26 minutes. Dekker had six points. San Antonio led by as many as 42 points in the second half, administering a thorough beating before a rapidly thinning crowd.

“I don’t really want to discuss his medical situation”, Popovich said. I wasn’t anxious about those guys being in. “We let him play a little while, just to see what it was like, but it was obvious that he couldn’t go”.

The win puts the Spurs on the brink of the Western Conference finals – and a date with the Golden State Warriors. San Antonio holds a 3-2 lead in the series but will need to find a way to play without its MVP candidate and clear two-way leader spearheading the charge.

There are only two NBA series’ left in the second round of the NBA Playoffs – the Celtics and the Wizards in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, and the Spurs against the Rockets in the West.