The Memphis Grizzlies may have the momentum, but the Golden State Warriors have history on their side when the Western Conference semifinals continue Friday night with Game 6 in San Francisco.

Facing elimination in the best-of-seven Wednesday and lining up without leading scorer Ja Morant, the Grizzlies dominated Golden State on both ends of the court in a historically lopsided 134-95 home win in Game 5.

A second straight Grizzlies win would send the series back to Memphis for Game 7, an advantage the second-seeded club earned by finishing three games ahead of the third-seeded Warriors in the regular season.

But Golden State’s 117-116 win at Memphis in Game 1 flipped the home-court edge in the series to the Warriors, giving the recent three-time NBA champions the inside track to earning a berth in the Western Finals for the sixth time in eight seasons.

“We’ve shown we’re a resilient team this year,” Golden State star Stephen Curry insisted after the Game 5 blowout, the largest in the postseason for the club since 2014. “We have the right mindset, the right approach, and all the tools we need to show who we really are in Game 6.”

The Grizzlies have been well-backed as 8.5-point underdogs at BetMGM, where they have drawn 71 percent of the spread bets and 74 percent of the handle. The 8.0-point line at DraftKings has drawn split action, with the Warriors backed by 52 percent of the bets while the Grizzlies have been supported by a whopping 89 percent of the handle.

The Warriors are expected to still be without coach Steve Kerr, who tested positive for COVID-19 before Game 4. Longtime assistant coach Mike Brown directed the Warriors in in Game 4 and Game 5. Brown has been named as head coach of the Sacramento Kings, effective after the season.

At home, the Warriors have been unbeatable during the playoffs. They won three home games in a row by an average of 13.3 points over the Denver Nuggets in Round 1 and crushed the Grizzlies 142-112 in San Francisco in Game 3 of this series as the visitors watched Morant go down with a knee injury.

But Memphis, as it has done all season, has responded well to seeing its star in street clothes on the sidelines. The Grizzlies were without Morant for 25 games in the regular season, winning 20 of them. And in Game 4 they led for almost 46 of the 48 minutes despite shooting poorly (41.7 percent overall, 25.7 percent on 3-pointers) but the Warriors escaped with a 101-98 decision.

Then in Game 5, the Grizzlies’ shots fell at a rate of 47.5 percent, including 43.9 percent on 3-point shots, and they buried the Warriors early. Memphis led by 10 after the first, 27 after the second, and 52 points after the third quarter. The lead topped out at 55.

The Warriors had averaged 119 points in their first eight playoff games, but they have averaged just 98 over the last two.

Since their championship run began in 2015, the Warriors have won six of eight Game 6s, including a 108-95 win at Memphis that ended their second-round series seven years ago.

That’s ancient history to the Grizzlies, who began the season as the third-youngest team in the NBA. Morant and many of their other players were still in high school in 2015.

One of those guys, 22-year-old Jaren Jackson Jr., is the key to the Grizzlies’ chances in Game 6, teammate Dillon Brooks insists.

“They got no one to guard him, no one to stop him,” Brooks claimed. “I try to tell him to stay aggressive, and you’re a walking mismatch out there for every single player that guards you. So just keep attacking.”

Jackson has topped 20 points three times in the series, including a pair of 21-point efforts since Morant left the lineup.

The Warriors hope to counter with defensive ace Draymond Green, a fellow Michigan State alum, albeit a decade earlier.

“It doesn’t feel good losing by as much as we did,” Warriors veteran Klay Thompson admitted after Wednesday’s loss. “But it’s just a loss. You flush it and you remind yourself who you are.

“We’re going to play with a 100-percent effort (in Game 6). I like our chances.”

The 218.5-point Over/Under at DraftKings falls smack in the middle of where the market opened at BetMGM (219.5) and where it stood as of Friday afternoon (217.5). The Over has drawn 72 percent of the bets and 57 percent of the spread at DraftKings while the Under has been backed by 53 and 68 percent of the action, respectively at BetMGM.

–Field Level Media

The Milwaukee Bucks will get an opportunity on their home floor to close out the second-seeded Boston Celtics when the tightly contested best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series continues Friday night.

The defending NBA champions used last-second heroics from Bobby Portis and Jrue Holiday, on top of a 40-point effort from Giannis Antetokounmpo, to pull out a 110-107 Game 5 win at Boston on Wednesday to take a 3-2 series lead.

With the teams having alternated wins and losses through five games, the scene shifts back to Milwaukee, where the Celtics were last seen evening the series for a second time with a 116-108 victory.

The Bucks are slightly 1.0-point favorites at DraftKings, where they have been backed by 68 percent of the spread bets and 67 percent of the handle. The line has held at 1.5 points at BetMGM with Milwaukee drawing 64 and 62 percent of the action, respectively.

Even in losing three of five games, the Celtics have outscored the Bucks by four points and have averaged a 15.5-point margin of victory. But it’s been third-seeded Milwaukee that’s walked away with two- and three-point triumphs in the series’ two tightest games in Game 3 and 5, respectively.

“Playoffs are all about moments,” said Portis, whose offensive rebound and follow shot with 11 seconds remaining provided the difference-making points in Game 5. “It’s not about how many shots you make. It’s not about how many points you score. It’s about moments. We got a lot of guys on this team that can have moments.”

Most of those moments in Game 5 belonged to Antetokounmpo, whose 27 shots included a critical 3-pointer with 1:40 to go and Milwaukee down by six. He was fouled on what would have been his 28th attempt, setting up the two free throws that later put the Bucks ahead — one that he made and the other that Portis followed in.

The Celtics have run different players at the two-time league MVP, including Grant Williams, Al Horford and Jaylen Brown.

While neither Antetokounmpo nor Brown, who had 26 points Wednesday, appear to have been physically affected by the battle, Williams and Horford showed some wear and tear at the offensive end in Game 5, combining for eight points on 4-for-10 shooting in a total of 71 1/2 minutes.

Without injured big man Robert Williams, who has missed the last two games with swelling in his surgically repaired left knee, the Celtics have been limited in their defensive options against the 6-foot-11 Bucks star. Williams will be a game-time decision for Game 6.

The Celtics blamed only themselves, not Williams’ injury, for their failure to hold onto a 14-point lead on their home court Wednesday.

“We made it tougher on ourselves now,” Celtics coach Ime Udoka said after the loss. “It’ll make it sweeter when we bounce back, but we gave up a golden opportunity.”

The visiting team has now won three of the five games in the series. The Bucks realize that home court guarantees nothing in Game 6.

“At the end of the day, can’t get too high, can’t get too low,” Antetokounmpo said. “We were up seven or 10 the previous game. We lost it. They were up. They lost this one.

“It’s great to go back home and feel good about ourselves, but the job is not done.”

The Over/Under line opened at 211.5 points at BetMGM but had moved to 210.5 by Friday with the Under drawing 65 percent of the bets and 78 percent of the handle. The 212.0-point line at DraftKings was slightly higher, leading to the Over drawing 64 and 56 percent of the action, respectively.

–Field Level Media