NBA Finals: How Celtics won Game 1 by giving Warriors, Stephen Curry taste of their own medicine

 

NBA Finals: How Celtics won Game 1 by giving Warriors, Stephen Curry taste of their own medicine

SAN FRANCISCO-- A backbreaking shower of 3- pointers that leaves the opponent cloaked in helplessness, searching for answers from a advanced power. Players on the bench celebrating with earned arrogance every time the ball splashes through the net with no resistance from the hem. A scoring run that leaves you combing the record books, unfit to sound that commodity this ruinous has ever happed ahead. 

 

 In the first- ever NBA Tests game at Chase Center, that was supposed to be the Golden State soldiers' story-- their return to the loftiest stratum of the basketball macrocosm. rather the Boston Celtics went on an unknown run in the fourth quarter, sparked by lights- out firing and point ball- movement, to come down with a 120- 108 Game 1 palm in San Francisco, draining the life from what had been an electrically rabid falsity crowd. 

Golden State's too-good- to-be-true narrative was formerly being written interior through the first quarter. Stephen Curry was on an impregnable heater that only he is able of, going 6- for- 8 from 3- point range en route to 21 points in the opening frame. Fast forward to the alternate half, when a trademark soldiers third- quarter run turned a their two- point halftime deficiency into a 15- point lead with just over two twinkles remaining. 

 

 A 38- point third quarter of that nature has been a knockout blow for many an unfortunate opponent over the last eight seasons of soldiers basketball. To say Boston responded would be one of the biggest enhancements of the NBA's 75- time history. 

 When people suppose of the soldiers, they presumably suppose of 3- pointers-- long- distance flurries from Curry and Klay Thompson stand over all other sharpshooters in basketball lore. On Thursday, however, Boston used the soldiers' cherished armament against them. 

 

 The Celtics outscored Golden State, 40- 16, in the final frame, made all the more inviting by the blistering 9- for- 12 3- point firing they rained down upon the Bay Area and its suckers. At one point, they made seven successive 3- pointers, the last bone

 by Al Horford giving his platoon a six- point lead which, given the imbalance of instigation at the time, sounded nearly invincible. 

 The reversal was all the more remarkable given that Jayson Tatum, Boston's leading arranger who just earned the Eastern Conference tests MVP, was held to 12 points on 3- of- 17 firing, facing colorful aggressive protective aesthetics throughout the night including a box- and- bone

 . His 13 assists, still, epitomized a Celtics platoon-- bolstered by the messaging of head trainer Ime Udoka-- committed to making the right play, no matter how simple, trusting that it would ultimately yield positive results. 

 

" They do a great job of helping and effects like that. So, you know, obviously it's just as simple as if you draw two, find notoriety that is open," Tatum said after Game 1." That is what I was just trying to do." 

 It was not just that the Celtics made 3s-- they were 21 for 41 for the game-- it was the way they were setting them up. They moved the ball snappily, piercing into the makeup and remonstrating out to players in perfect position with indeed further perfect passes. Take a look at this play where the Celtics rattle off four passes in six seconds, leading to an open 3 for Horford, who set an NBA record for players making their Tests debut with six 3- pointers on the night. 

 

 Dare we say, that ball movement looksWarriors-esque. 

 The Celtics also used small- ball, a Golden State chief of times past, to dominate the fourth quarter on both ends. The unit on the court when Boston eventually took the lead was Horford at center, along with Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard. lower than three twinkles latterly, the Celtics had developed a six- point advantage and had played soldiers center Kevon Looney off the court. Steve Kerr combated with the" Poole Party" lineup of Curry, Thompson, Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole-- which has driveled after looking unstoppable against the Denver Nuggets in the first round-- but it was unfit to plug the peering holes in the soldiers' levee that the Celtics had furiously broken down. 

The attack was so wide that the soldiers had nothing to key in on. Horford, Brown, White and Marcus Smart made two 3s all in the fourth quarter. Pritchard added one." Strength in figures" has been the soldiers' aphorism for times, but on Thursday it clearly applied to the Celtics. 

 

" We flatter ourselves on everybody being suitable to contribute on both ends," Udoka said after the game." That is satisfying, especially on a night when your stylish joe has an off night." 

Defensively, the Celtics went to a lot further switching andpre-switching in the fourth quarter in order to limit Curry's firing and the soldiers' penetration. Udoka said the small unit played also played with further physicality and" sounded to wear( the soldiers) down a little bit." They held Golden State to 6- of- 15 firing in the fourth quarter, including 1- for- 6 from 3- point range, before the benches were voided in the final nanosecond, and forced as numerous successions as the soldiers had assists. Overall, the small- ball lineup paid tips for Boston, and it's commodity to watch as the series progresses. 

 

 

 In a way, it was fitting that these Celtics climbed out of a major deficiency in their first NBA Tests game-- after all, their regular season was marked by an questionable act of switch- flipping. After a medium launch, they set up themselves 25- 25 onJan. 28. From that point on, they went 26- 7 with a net standing of plus-13.8, five points better than the closest rival, and earned theNo. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. The Celtics know how to fight back because they have been fighting back all time long, and Udoka continued to sermonize adaptability as the soldiers extended their lead in the third quarter. 

" We have been through a lot. We have been through a lot of gests , a lot of losses. We know what it takes to win," Brown said after Game 1." I give credit to every joe in that locker room from top to bottom. We got a great, flexible group. The chain is only as strong at its weakest link." 

 

 The strangest part about the playoffs, and particularly the Tests, is that as soon as the final buzzer sounds on Game 1, it's each about Game 2. Both brigades will look at the film and make adaptations, knowing that the complexion of Sunday's rematch could look absolutely nothing like the nature. But on Thursday the Celtics affirmed what they have figured out over the last five months-- they believe they've what it takes to be NBA titleholders, and nothing can discourage them from that mindset. 

" We can not get too high and we can not get too low. We played veritably well, but we've to match that energy the coming game, and we understand that," Smart said." We all know this game is a game of runs. You do not go into the game planning to play bad. effects be. You just got to find a way."