The Golden State Warriors defeated the Denver Nuggets 102-98 in Game 5 of the NBA Western Conference first-round playoffs at Chase Center in San Francisco on Wednesday, winning the series 4-1 and reaching the West semifinals.

The Warriors will meet the winner between the Memphis Grizzlies and Minnesota Timberwolves. The Grizzlies are currently leading 3-2 and will play Game 6 on the road at Target Center on Friday.

Stephen Curry returned to the starting lineup for the Warriors on Wednesday night for the first time in the series. He shot 5-of-11 from downtown to drop 30 points, five rebounds and five assists, including getting 11 points in the fourth quarter, leading the Warriors to a 32-20 rally.

Gary Payton II made all of his four field goals (FGs), including two valuable triples, to score 10 points in the fourth quarter as well. When Klay Thompson and Jordan Poole combined 2-for-10 at the 3-point line, Payton II, being able to respond to the opponents' defensive decision of leaving him open, mattered even more to the Warriors on the offensive front.

The Nuggets did worse than the Warriors behind the arc, but their constant charging of the rim, especially in the first half, resulted in 20 free throws. These plays not only became key offensive contributions, but also caused foul trouble among the opponents' defenders. The Warriors had to send first-year rookie Jonathan Kuminga to the floor to shoulder some defensive pressure.

More importantly, the Nuggets managed to help Nikola Jokic save some strength to make key offensive performance during the time that mattered the most. The reigning NBA MVP, who focused on rebounding (19) and orchestrating (eight assists) in the first three quarters of Wednesday's game, switched on full power to score 12 points in the final quarter.

It must be noticed that Jokic was dealing with thigh injury in the fourth quarter, but that didn't stop him from dominating the floor to hit 5-of-7 from the field in this quarter. Jokic has averaged 31 points, 13.2 rebounds, 5.9 assists, 1.6 steals and one block during this series. He already did everything he could without the team's second-and third-best players, Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr., both of whom were ruled out due to injury.

The Warriors will need to get ready to meet totally different opponents from the Nuggets, either the Grizzlies or the Timberwolves in the West semifinals. Neither team has a big man playmaker like Jokic, whose offensive influence is on everything. However, both the Grizzlies and the Timberwolves have more than one offensive threat who can cause trouble by launching attack off the dribble. Furthermore, the two teams' aggressive defensive style can cost the Warriors a lot of transition offense if they continue to deal with the ball in the sloppy way of the first-round series.

Bucks give Bulls a painful end of the season

The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Chicago Bulls 116-100 in Game 5 of the NBA Eastern Conference first-round playoffs at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on Wednesday to win the series and advance to the East semifinals.

The Bucks will play against the Boston Celtics in the semifinals from Game 1 at TD Garden on Sunday. The Celtics swept the Brooklyn Nets 4-0 in their first-round series.

Wednesday's game was almost long gone after the first quarter during which the Bucks led 34-18. Giannis Antetokounmpo shot 5-for-5 from the floor and made five free throws to score 15 points and six rebounds for the Bucks in this quarter alone. The whole team of the Bulls committed eight fouls in the first quarter, seven of which were on Antetokounmpo. It's true that they lack resource to contain him, but the Bulls didn't not even try to slow him down.

While the Bucks' starters were destroying the opponents from the inside, Pat Connaughton and Grayson Allen combined 9-of-15 at the 3-point line to tear the Bulls' perimeter defense apart. At least on the defensive end, the Bulls seemed to have already given up.

The Bulls were not playing like themselves either on the offensive front. They shot a total of 52 triples, 22 more than their average number during the regular season, in Wednesday's game. Nonetheless, without the team's best 3-point shooters Lonzo Ball (injury) and Zach LaVine (safety and health protocols), the Bulls only made 15 of them.

The Bucks were happy to see the Bulls launch attack in the way they were not used to. Meanwhile, the Bucks spared no efforts shutting the opponents out of the paint and containing the Bulls' most threatening offensive weapon DeMar DeRozan. As a result, the Bulls only 30 points in the paint. DeRozan shot 5-for-10 to get only 11 points and earned as few as two free throws.

The Bulls had a remarkable beginning of the regular season but their ranking continued to drop as the team's key players, especially perimeter elite defenders like Ball and Alex Caruso, continued to miss out games because of injury.

However, even if the Bulls could remain 100-percent healthy, they would still be overwhelmed by the Bucks in the first round. Their poor spacing and offensive reliance on the shooting form of DeRozan and LaVine could hardly beat the Bucks' defense. The Bulls don't have enough size and power in the forward position to match Bucks intimidating strength of Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis, despite the absence of Khris Middleton since Game 3 of the series.

The Bucks and the Celtics will have a very interesting series in the East semifinals. Both sides have enough defensive resources to contain the opponents' cores. Antetokounmpo and Jrue Holiday can take over Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown during clutch time. Marcus Smart, Robert Williams and Al Horford make one of the league's best defensive combinations to slow Antetokounmpo down. ESPN broke that Middleton may not return in this series and that will hurt the Bucks' spacing and isolation ability in the middle range. The presence of Lopez, Portis and Antetokounmpo will create extra pressure on the Celtics' undersized squad in rebounding as well.