Stephen Curry lifted his second MVP trophy in as many years before the game, then carried the Golden State Warriors over the finish line and into the Western Conference finals.
Curry had 14 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter, including a dagger triple with 24.9 seconds left as the Warriors eliminated the pesky Portland Trail Blazers 125-121 in Game 5 on Wednesday of their semifinal series.
“Much respect to Portland and coach Terry Stotts,” Warriors NBA Coach of the Year Steve Kerr said. “We had to fight and scrap and claw and do everything possible to win.”   
Ahead by two, Curry dribbled the ball behind his back and delivered his fifth three-pointer of the night over Al-Farouq Aminu to send the sold-out Oracle Arena crowd into a frenzy and give the Warriors a decisive 121-116 lead.
“This is what you practice every day for, to be in those kinds of moments,” he said. “Just let your mind be free, have confidence and knock down the shot. In that situation, I was trying to make a read, shot the three and it went in.”
Curry sank four free throws in the last 10.9 seconds to wrap up the thrilling win.
“Steph’s probably the only one who can make that shot,” Kerr said.
“He made his free throws and we got it done.”
Klay Thompson led the Warriors with a game-high 33 points through three quarters on 13-of-17 shooting, while Draymond Green had 13 points, 11 rebounds and six assists.
“I’m happy to be done with this series,” Green said. “I’m just looking at it and see 4-1 but it didn’t feel like that. I gained a lot of respect with those guys and the way they fought.”
The defending NBA Champs will meet winner of the Oklahoma City Thunder-San Antonio Spurs series. Oklahoma
lead 3-2, with Game 6 on Thursday.
“Both team pose different problems,” Thompson said. “Its really a coin flip and you’re not going to get any breaks playing either team.”
Damian Lillard scored 28 points and C.J. McCollum added 16 of his 27 in the fourth quarter for the fifth-seeded Trail Blazers, who knocked down 16-of-36 triples in defeat.
“We lost 4-1 but we should be proud of the way we pushed them,” Lillard said.
“You have to give them credit; they do what championship teams do. When it’s time to win games they do things a little better than we did.”
In Wednesday’s other game, DeMar DeRozan scored 34 points, Kyle Lowry had 25, and the two combined for the team’s final 13 points as the Toronto Raptors held off the visiting Miami Heat 99-91 to take a 3-2 lead in their Western Conference semifinal series.
The All-Star duo had struggled earlier in the tie, including a frigid 6-of-28 in Monday’s Game 4 overtime loss before coming up big 48 hours later, but came back strong.  
“We have faith in those guys,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. “Not one time did we doubt their ability to score.”
DeRozan, playing with a painfully jammed right thumb, said: “We just go out there and be aggressive. Shots just weren’t dropping for us but we knew they’d come back around.”
Lowry added in reference to their final 13 points: “We’re our closers. We’ve been our closers the whole year.”
The Raptors built an early 20-point lead and 82-69 with 8:33 left in the game before surviving some anxious moments down the stretch after two free throws by Dwayne Wade drew the Heat within 88-87 with 1:54 left.
But DeRozan hit a pair of foul shots for a 90-87 lead, Miami’s Goran Dragic then slipped and threw the ball out of bounds, and Lowry’s 12-foot jumper for 95-89 with 23.7 ticks to go ended Miami’s hopes.
“I missed like four or five easy shots throughout the fourth quarter and had the opportunity to make up for it,” Lowry said.
“I hit a three and the next shot my guy (DeRozan) said, be big, be aggressive, be me.”  
Wade dropped in 20 points while Dragic and Josh Richardson had 13 apiece for the third-seeded Heat.
“Every time it looked like they were going to pull away we kept fighting and pulled within one,” Wade explained.
“I said this is our time, we’re going to make our move but couldn’t.”
The Raptors can wrap up the tie in Friday’s Game 6 at Miami and advance to the conference finals for the first time in franchise history while the Heat looks to stay alive.
“Our guys love this type of competition,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.