SAN FRANCISCO — Resilient? Yeah.
Mentally tough? That, too.
Boston knocked off Golden State 120–108 in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. And who could have predicted that?
Stephen Curry scored 34 points, and the Celtics won.
Jayson Tatum shot 3-for-17, and the Celtics won.
Boston was outscored 38–24 in the third quarter, and the Celtics won.
"Being resilient has been the word for us this year,” Payton Pritchard said. “And I think it showed tonight."
Boston entered this game with the NBA’s stingiest defense. Early on, the Warriors exploited it, connecting on 48% of their shots in the first quarter, including 53.8% of their threes. Curry knocked down six of them, a Finals record for a quarter. Yet Boston, backed by a diverse offense with five players scoring at least five points, finished the quarter trailing only by four.
The Celtics squeezed out a lead at halftime. Marcus Smart (10 points in the first half) got his shot going in the second quarter. Derrick White came off the bench and knocked down a couple of threes. Al Horford did, too. At the start of the third quarter, Boston appeared to be in good shape.
Until it started.
The first 12 minutes of the second half have been disastrous at times for Boston, from the 34–17 blitz Milwaukee put on them in Game 3 of the conference semifinals to the 39–17 third quarter drubbing by Miami in Game 1 of the conference finals. The Warriors found similar success, overwhelming the Celtics with a barrage of threes to take a 12-point lead into the fourth quarter.
The Celtics looked cooked. Golden State came into this series with a decisive edge in experience. The Warriors roster boasted 123 games of Finals experience. Boston? Zero. The Celtics, though, have been a resilient bunch all season. They rallied from a 3-2 series deficit to beat Milwaukee in the second round. They overcame a home loss in Game 6 of the conference finals to take out the Heat in Miami in Game 7.
When the Celtics get punched, more often than not they punch back.
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That’s what happened on Thursday. Jaylen Brown got it going in the first minute of the fourth quarter, knocking down an 18-footer. A minute later, he connected on a 26-footer. Brown had struggled until that point, shooting 6-for-17 through the first three quarters. He made 4-of-6 shots in the fourth—including 2-of-3 from three—and finished with 10 points in the final frame.
White, a trade deadline acquisition, got it going. He was solid in the conference finals, averaging 10 points and connecting on 36% of his threes. In Game 1, he was better. His three-pointer with six minutes remaining slashed the Warriors’ lead to one. A minute later White knocked down another that tied the game. He finished the game with 21 points, chipping into the defense that held Curry to 13 points in the second half.
Finally, Horford. Horford has experienced a career resurgence this season, shedding a subpar season in Philadelphia and an incomplete one in Oklahoma City to become one of Boston’s most important players. His three-pointer with five minutes to play gave the Celtics a three-point lead. He knocked down another 20 seconds later. He finished the quarter with 11 points, making all four of his shots.
The Celtics outscored Golden State 40-13 in the fourth quarter before the Warriors threw in the towel. They connected on nine of their 12 threes, the best percentage for a quarter in Finals history. They became the first team in Finals history to win a game by double digits after trailing by double digits entering the fourth quarter.
And they did it with Tatum not scoring a point.
"For us, it was just continue to play no matter what, and our guys, that’s what we did,” Horford said. “It wasn’t our best game, but we continued to fight and find different ways to get this win."
Golden State will need to recover. Home court advantage is gone. Boston, a better road team than home team during these playoffs, didn’t need it anyway. The Celtics’ swarming defense held the Warriors to 42% shooting in the second half and 41% in the fourth quarter. "They are who we thought they were,” Draymond Green said. “Now we will watch film and clips and figure [it] out.”
It won’t be easy. The Celtics aren’t just happy to be in the Finals. They came to win it all.
