By KYLE HIGHTOWER and BRIAN MAHONEY AP Sports Writers

BOSTON — Steph Curry and the Warriors have been within a game of clinching a championship in three of Golden State’s previous five trips to the NBA Finals during his 13-year NBA career.

Back again and with a 3-2 series lead on the Celtics, Curry says he’ll lean on that experience when he takes the court at Boston’s TD Garden on Thursday night.

“You just understand what the nerves are like,” Curry said. “At the end of the day, once you get out there, you just have to be in the moment. You got to be present as much as possible, not worry about the consequences of a win or a loss. The only opportunity you have is that 48 minutes.”

The Warriors’ core of Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are still around from the 2015 championship run. They’re on the verge of capturing their fourth title in eight seasons with new additions to the floor – like Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole – who have never been in this position.

Curry’s advice to them: Lie to yourself a little bit.

“The more you can trick your mind into being in the moment and staying there, that’s the best advice I can give anybody in that situation,” he said. “Because it’s going to be the hardest game you probably ever played in your career because of what the stakes are.”

The stakes will be equally high for the Celtics, who let the turnover demons that have haunted them at times throughout the postseason prevent them from seizing a commanding 3-1 series lead.

Boston limited Curry to his lowest scoring output of the finals in Game 5, but couldn’t overcome 18 turnovers. The Celtics dropped to 1-7 this postseason when committing 16 turnovers or more – and lost consecutive games for the first time since the end of March.

But they have a chance to force Game 7 – and the chance is coming at the Garden, where they are 6-5 in the playoffs.

The mood at the close of Wednesday’s practice session was loose, with players smiling and joking while getting up some shots. Celtics star Jayson Tatum said the optimism comes from the team’s extremely recent playoff history.

Boston’s path to the finals has included Game 7 victories over Milwaukee in the second round and Miami in the conference finals. The Celtics entered the Finals as only the 12th team in league history to win back-to-back Game 7s in the preceding rounds.

“In those moments, we just responded. I don’t know exactly what it is, but I think just our will to want to win, just trying to figure it out,” Tatum said. “I think my thought process, as it was in that game, Game 7 against the Heat, it was just do whatever it takes to win.”

That, and reminding himself and teammates of the fact that there is still basketball left to play.

“It’s the first to four. It’s not over with,” Tatum said. “So as long as it’s not over with, you got a chance.”

WINNING WIGGINS SHINING

Wiggins’ critics always focused on what they thought he wasn’t.

Not driven enough to be the No. 1 pick in the draft, they said. Just not good enough to be an All-Star starter, they argued.

One more victory by the Warriors and all that will matter is what Wiggins is: an NBA champion.

“He’s shining on the brightest of stages in the playoffs. You can tell how much he’s enjoying it,” fellow All-Star Curry said Wednesday. “It’s just amazing to see things working out in his favor in terms of kind of dispelling all the narratives around him and who he is as a basketball player right in front of your eyes.”

The Warriors have won two straight games and Wiggins is as big a reason as any. The forward from Canada had 17 points and a career-high 16 rebounds in Game 4, then followed that with 26 points and 13 boards.

Wiggins had recorded consecutive double-doubles just once in his career before doing it in the two biggest games he’s ever played.

“It’s always great being able to showcase what you can do, what you worked for,” Wiggins said. “So I’m just happy to be able to be here on the biggest stage and help my team win.”

Even those who wanted to dismiss Wiggins had to concede he could score. The No. 1 pick in the 2014 draft averaged 16.9 points when he won Rookie of the Year honors, and he never scored fewer than 17 per game again. But that rarely translated to winning, with Minnesota only making one playoff appearance while he was there, and it was easy to wonder what there was to Wiggins’ game besides the points.

Turns out, there’s a lot.

Coach Steve Kerr is surprised by how well Wiggins rebounds. On defense, the 6-foot-7 Wiggins has taken on the tough assignments, doing his best to contain Dallas All-Star Luka Doncic in the Western Conference finals and now taking his turns on Celtics swingmen Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

It’s a versatility the Warriors say they knew was there, no matter how much it went unnoticed by others.

“He’s taken on every challenge that we have thrown in front of him, and that’s been huge,” Green said. “And we need him to do that for one more win.”

Skepticism about Wiggins followed him to the NBA after he managed just four points in his final college game, when Kansas was upset by Stanford in the 2014 NCAA Tournament. He took only six shots, a lackluster effort that created questions about how hard he was willing to work when things weren’t coming easily.

But Green said he was assured by Tom Thibodeau, the current New York Knicks coach who guided the Timberwolves to the lone postseason appearance with Wiggins, that the Warriors would love how hard Wiggins defends and competes.

They had acquired Wiggins in February 2020 along with a first-round pick when they dealt D’Angelo Russell to Minnesota. Wiggins played well enough to be voted to start his first All-Star Game this season, though even that didn’t earn him accolades that had been missing. Wiggins was viewed as a player who had been miscast as a No. 1 option in Minnesota, and the reason he was playing well for Golden State was because he didn’t have that burden on a team led by Curry.

Yet when Curry struggled in Game 5, missing all nine 3-point attempts, Wiggins looked every bit the part of main man.

Curry will likely still be the NBA Finals MVP if the Warriors win the series. But Wiggins has at least made it a discussion instead of a foregone conclusion.

“It’s amazing what you do with opportunity,” Curry said. “Take away the comparisons, the narratives around him as a No. 1 pick, what everybody wanted him to be, his first six years in the league looked like. There’s a reason we wanted him here. There’s a reason that trade made sense for us. There was a high hope that he would be able to figure it out at this level in terms of taking his scoring ability, his athleticism, his defensive potential, just taking it to another notch.”

MY BALL

Tatum and Green had one of the more memorable moments in Game 5, when Tatum refused to let Green take the ball from him as he walked to the bench during timeout.

The play was an example of the head games Green has tried to play against a young Celtics team throughout the Finals.

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On Wednesday, Tatum clutched a basketball throughout his news conference. He was asked by a reporter if he was still keeping it away from Green.

“Oh, like the other day?” Tatum asked. “Yeah, It’s my ball.”

ENOUGH TALK

One thing Celtics coach Ime Udoka wants to eliminate heading into Game 6 is his team complaining to referees about calls.

Boston picked up a pair of technical fouls in the loss – one in the first quarter by Udoka and another by Marcus Smart early in the fourth. Smart’s technical was followed immediately by an offensive foul call against him, which led to a 3-pointer by Golden State.

“I think in general just too many conversations being had at times. Feels like after foul calls or dead balls, free throws, timeouts, there’s somebody talking to a ref,” Udoka said. “We’ve got to spend our energy on the game, and everything else going in between, other than the referees.”