The Golden State Warriors are looking to put the cap on their best-of-seven Western Conference First-Round playoff series against the Houston Rockets when they face each other at the Oracle Arena on Wednesday evening in Game 5.

The 2015 NBA Champions are going to play without their best player of the season, the incumbent league's Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry, who suffered a knee injury in their 121-94 Game 4 victory.  Curry is expected to miss the remainder of the series and his departure is expected to leave a big hole in the Warriors offensive artillery.

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"When you have a team that is as together as ours is and cares about each other like ours does, you tend to pick up the fight a little bit," Steve Kerr , who was named 2015-16 NBA Coach of the Year, said. "Our guys sensed that we needed to come together."

Reserve guard Shaun Livingston will replace the league's leading scorer in the lineup once again. The 2004 NBA draft 4^th overall pick  guard scored 16 points in each of his first two starts in this series during Curry's absences in Games two and three.

Livingston is currently averaging 12.5 points, 5.3 assists and 3.8 rebounds per contest in the four games he played in the first round of the ongoing playoff series.

The other half of the Splash Brothers Klay Thompson, who is the second leading scorer of the Warriors, will need to produce more. He will be supported by Andre Iguodala and Draymond Green in the offensive and defensive end.

The Rockets on the other hand, will be trying to come up with a win in Oakland to extend the series. Houston has lost five playoff games at the Oracle in the last two seasons as part of a nine-game skid there.

James Harden and Dwight Howard are expected to carry the Rockets as they take advantage of the absence of Curry.

TagsStephen Curry, Steve Kerr, Klay Thompson, James Harden, shaun livingston, 2016 nba playoffs, houston rockets, Golden State Warriors news