'The rest is history': Inside Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals

With a massive Game 5 coming up in the NBA Finals, I thought I could take our readers through a memorable Game 5 — for all the wrong reasons for myself and my team — from arguably the best finals series of all time in 2016 with the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers rivalry.

The biggest thing in the lead up to that game back at Oracle Arena, when we led the series 3-1, was the suspension of Draymond Green.

That preparation wasn't ideal. It was a bit of a BS suspension in our minds. I mean, some of the stuff Draymond did prior to that he should have been penalised for, such as the kick in the nuts to Steven Adams, but I think they took his track record into account and went harder on him for the final indiscretion, which was let's be honest, nothing really.

Everyone knows when you play basketball and someone stands over you, that's the ultimate form of disrespect on the basketball court. Draymond reacted the way he did but he wasn't trying to punch him in the manhood region like they insinuated.

However, there's no point crying over spilt milk, it was 3-1 at the time and if we lose Draymond you get a couple of extra games out of the series no matter what, then the conspiracy theorists come out to play.

Draymond was a huge part of that series, especially with our switching line-up. You'd take me out of the line-up and put Draymond at the 5, Andre Iguodala at the 4 and it really caused a lot of problems for Cleveland (and a bunch of other teams). You take him out and it kind of changed our rotation for that Game 5.

Festus (Ezeli) played more minutes, a couple of other guys got minutes that weren't accustomed to it, just our rotation was out of whack from the start. But we were OK, we were tied up at half-time and then I went down with a knee injury that would force me to miss the rest of the series.

I felt like I was playing really well defensively, especially protecting the paint. LeBron was kind of looking for me every time he turned the corner, which is what you want.

It was really disappointing for me to have that injury because the Finals the year before, our small ball line-up was so dominant and I didn't have a great series early on in that one, so we went small and it won us the championship. Coming into the 2016 finals, I was in the mindset of, I want to dominate defensively and make Steve Kerr make a tough decision, whether he's going to go small or not. If you're doing well, he has to play you.

I was playing 20 minutes a night in that Finals series and we dominated the first couple of games. Would me not being injured have changed the rest of the series? Would the Draymond suspension change anything? Who knows.

I felt early in the series I got to a few of Lebron's shots at the rim. I was starting to notice he wouldn’t attach as hard when I was in the game and roaming. Like, when he was turning the corner, he was finding where I was. On top of that, with myself going down, you shorten the rotation once again.

But back to the game.

Game 5 was there for the taking. Kyrie and LeBron obviously took over with 41 points each. I can't remember the score (we ended up losing by double digits and only scored 13 in the 4th quarter) in that one but we had our chances in that game but Cleveland just hung around and took it from us at the end. But I don't think we could sense a change say from Kyrie and LeBron. They were obviously threatened and we weren't as threatened.

I think we were probably a bit more comfortable, knowing we were up 3-1 and you look at all the stats and analytics around a team being up 3-1, I think it's like better than 90% that they go on to win the series. Also, when you have homecourt advantage like we did, those teams rarely ever lose.

I don't know if we bought into that too much and just thought we would be alright but it kind of all just went to shit for us and went well for them. They came up on the positive every time and that's a credit to them I guess for just sticking with it.

After that Game 5, there was a shift in momentum. Obviously, we felt threatened going into Cleveland for Game 6. Like I said, when we were cruising, the rotations were on point, everyone was playing their role perfectly but then it all changed.

Cleveland was crazy that night in Game 6 — it was wild! The arena was so loud and they were just brilliant, they were confident and they didn't look like a team that was down 3-2 going back to GSW for Game 7. They seemed like they were the favourites at that point and we just couldn't get the momentum back. They had full control of those last few games and we had our opportunities to win.

You look at Game 7. If Andre makes that layup, we get a couple of stops here and there, a couple of deflections and then we win the series.

But then how it finished, as I mentioned, everything went their way. Kyrie making some huge shots, LeBron making that block, there were numerous plays that changed the course of the game.

LeBron was solid throughout those games scoring wise but late in the game with that Cavs squad, and it's no disrespect to LeBron, we were much more worried about Kyrie late in games than LeBron. Because LeBron will generally just make the right play, if someone's open he will find them, whereas Kyrie will take and make those tough shots. And that's what he did to win the championship.

You have to give him credit for that, it was fantastic defence, we couldn't have played it any better and Kyrie ended up knocking it down and the rest is history.

Playing in such big moments like that with some of the biggest superstars in the history of the NBA, it's not something you think about when you're playing but it's a really awesome part of my career that I'll cherish forever. And to be part of that kind of squad with the Warriors, where you had stars like Steph Curry who has changed the game, and you're able to get a championship, it's incredible.

As far as Game 5 in this series between OKC and Indiana, it's going to big. It's not the end of the world for either team if they lose but the narrative changes depending on who wins it. If Indiana wins, you probably have them as a favourite but then again both teams have just been so resilient and won big games on the road.

I don't think homecourt means as much in this series as it probably has in the past.

Indiana squandered a chance to go up 3-1 but they could just never put OKC away and Alex Caruso made some big shots to keep them in the game. Then SGA just completely takes over the last five minutes of the game.

But this has just been a great series. I'm neutral, not really a fan of any particular team these days, I follow it more for watching the game and I think we may see a seven game series in this one. But this has been fun to watch, and it's two teams which don't have big 3s (3 max contract guys) or anything like that, which I absolutely love.

NBA Champion Andrew Bogut is a columnist and contributor for Basketball.com.au. He is part owner and assistant coach of the Sydney Kings.

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