- Editor's note: This story originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston.
The Golden State Warriors apparently have no plans to return to San Francisco unless the Larry O'Brien Trophy is in their hands.
The Warriors are one win away from an NBA championship after defeating the Boston Celtics 104-94 in Game 5 of the NBA Finals at Chase Center on Monday night. They face a tall task in Thursday's Game 6, as the Celtics will have home court at TD Garden and are 3-0 in elimination games this postseason.
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Steve Kerr wants his team to have an aggressive mindset Thursday night, however, and didn't mince words with his message to the players just minutes after their Game 5 win.
"We're going to get this in Boston. We're going to finish this in Boston," Kerr implored in his postgame speech.
Kerr and the Warriors have every right to adopt this mindset. Beating a team on the road in an elimination game requires incredible confidence and resolve, and Kerr was trying to instill both of those qualities here with a message that he probably assumed would remain private.
Golden State Warriors
Now that it's public, however, perhaps the Celtics will use Kerr's message as a little added motivation to send the series back to Golden State for a Game 7 on Sunday.
If the C's want to extend their season with a win Thursday night, they'll need to a much better job taking care of the ball: They committed 18 turnovers in Game 5 that led to 22 Warriors points, giving Golden State a whopping 103 points off turnovers in the series to date.
The good news for Boston is that it plays its best basketball with the season on the line: The C's rallied from a 3-2 deficit to defeat the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round and won a do-or-die Game 7 on the road against the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals.
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Warriors forward Draymond Green, who is playing in his eighth NBA Finals, also described the wide range of emotions associated with playing in a potential title-clincher.
"It's a very exciting feeling knowing that you're one game away from the Larry O'Brien Trophy. It is the most nerve-wracking feeling knowing that you're one game away from the Larry O'Brien Trophy," Green said on his podcast, "The Draymond Green Show," after Game 5.
"... You're going to feel that energy immediately stepping into the city of Boston. It's not like you step into the arena and feel that. You feel that energy immediately stepping in, so I think it's important we bring our hard hats to the plane ready to go."
The Celtics are hoping that energy can help them stave off elimination and force a Game 7 on Sunday.