Photo: Warriors Rally Towel Pays Homage to Kevin Durant

Kevin Durant had a surgery to repair his ruptured Achilles, and the Golden State Warriors will have to play without him. Durant played 12 minutes in Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals, and scored 11 points. Many thought he would leave the game as a winner, but Durant left the floor with a ruptured Achilles.

The Warriors are trailing 3-2 in the series, and they will have their final game at Oracle Arena. Kevin Durant won’t be there. The Golden State has always given fans in attendance t-shirts or rally towels that cover the seats in yellow. This time the team did a marvelous job as they plan to deliver a very special message for Game 6.

The script “For Oakland” features a stacked “KD” in white lettering.

Stephen Curry rallied his teammates to finish off Game 5 with a win, and that’s exactly what happened.

“You could kind of just feel the life just go right out of us,” Draymond Green said. “But to Steph’s credit, he kind of rallied the troops. He talked to everybody, went around the huddle and just told everybody to stay locked in and do this for Kevin. And I think we did a good job of coming together.”

Playing without Durant won’t be easy, but the guys can do this.

“It’s not that we think we have to take on the scoring load,” Klay Thompson said. “But when Kevin’s not out there … the ball’s going to find us a little bit more because you know what he can do, averaging 35 a game in this postseason run.”

Head coach Steve Kerr is confident about his players and their power on the floor.

“Maybe what people don’t know is how competitive they are, and I think they showed that tonight,” the Warriors coach said. “I’ve seen it an awful lot. It doesn’t happen every night but it seems to happen most nights.”

Everyone is suddenly playing the blame game. Many say that Durant was never supposed to make the floor so early as he was still recovering from his injury. But, the damage is already done.