Lou Williams hit a fadeaway jumper with 90 seconds left and finished with 33 points and 10 assists, the Warriors uncharacteristically clanked shots much of the second half and couldn’t make key stops, and the Los Angeles Clippers sent their first-round series back home with a 129-121 Game 5 win over Golden State on Wednesday night.

There are no celebrations just yet for the two-time defending champions, who lead the playoff series 3-2 but needed far more than Kevin Durant’s playoff career-high 45 points. The Clippers stymied Golden State’s comeback effort on the very court at Oracle Arena where Los Angeles rallied from 31 points down in Game 2 for the largest comeback in NBA postseason history. Game 6 is on Friday back in Los Angeles.

“It’s been a year where things haven’t gone exactly smoothly all the time,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after the game. “I’m not surprised by anything, but I expected to come out and play better and win the game. But it’s the NBA playoffs. This is a seven-game series and you’ve got to play. You’ve got to defend with some urgency.”

Meanwhile his opposite number, Doc Rivers, was confident his team can keep the series going into Game 6. “I don’t want to get ahead of myself. They’re up 3-2 still, but I just loved how we played, I really did,” Rivers said. “All we talked about is being us. I told our guys, they’ve been them in the series. We have yet to put a game where we are us through the game.”

In Wednesday’s other game James Harden scored 26 points and Houston outlasted Utah to seal their first-round playoff series 4-1. The Rockets advanced to the Western Conference semifinals for the third straight season and will face the winner of the Clippers-Warriors series.

The Rockets were helped by a solid game from Clint Capela, who had 16 points and 10 rebounds. He acknowledged that he was having trouble breathing in the Game 4 loss because of an upper respiratory infection and was held to just four points. After scoring 31 points to lead Utah to the victory in Game 4, Donovan Mitchell managed just 12 points on a night he missed all nine of his three-point attempts.

The Warriors beat the Rockets in a seven-game series in last year’s Conference final, and Houston said they another shot at the champions. “That’s what I want,” center Clint Capela said. “I want to face them.” Veteran Chris Paul slightly scolded the 24-year-old for acknowledging that this is the matchup Houston has been looking forward to all season. “That’s going to be all over [the internet],” Paul said, shaking his head. He added: “Real talk, in order to get to where you want to get to, you have to go through them.”