San Francisco: Stephen Curry was honoured with his second-consecutive league MVP award before leading Golden State to a 125-121 victory over Portland as the Warriors advanced to back-to-back conference finals.
The night started with Curry’s award for the first unanimous MVP trophy and ended with the superstar capping his 29-point performance with four free throws in the final 18 seconds to give the Warriors a 4-1 series victory over the Trail Blazers.
The Warriors advanced to their first back-to-back NBA semifinals since the 1974-75 and 1975-76 seasons by winning their eighth consecutive series clinching game at home.
Golden State now await the winner of the Oklahoma City Thunder-San Antonio Spurs series. If Oklahoma City eliminate the Spurs in Game Six on Thursday, the best-of-seven Western Conference finals would begin Monday in Oakland.
The fifth-seeded Trail Blazers made the Warriors work for their win on Wednesday. Portland led by as many as 11 early and got to 118-115 in the final minute of the contest.
Warriors Klay Thompson forced Portland star Damian Lillard to miss a shot from 17 feet. Curry then busted loose and nailed a 25-footer for the clutch basket that put Golden State up 121-116.
Thompson led the Warriors with 33 points, hitting 13 of 17 from the field and six of nine three-point attempts. In the earlier game Wednesday, DeMar DeRozan tallied 34 points as the Toronto Raptors seized a 3-2 lead in their Eastern Confer-ence series with a 99-91 win over the Miami Heat.
