The first of what could be several rubber games in a series expected to last seven games was set for Boston on Friday night.
The Celtics sought to avoid losing in playoff games for the first time since the season – they were 6-0 after losing in Match 3 at TD Garden in Boston.
The Warriors sought to continue their streak of winning at least one game in 26 playoff series, an NBA record. They will get another chance on Friday night after falling 116-100 to the Celtics and will try to avoid a 3-1 loss in the series.
Here are some excerpts:
Jaylan Brown is heard
The Celtics are actually built around a pair of young, stellar wings, but the appearance of Jason Tatum as a player in the first team of all NBA and a likely bet for MVP in the finals, if the Celtics continue to win the title, slightly surpassed – overshadowed Jalen Brown.
But Brown – the third overall pick in 2016, a year before Tatum was third – was determined to make an impact in Game 3.
He started the first quarter with a triple and also hit one to finish a quarter. Between the two of them? He rolls. Brown passed clearly, placed the ball on the floor and rammed Draymond Green, finishing the frame with 17 points, five rebounds and three assists in a 6-out-of-9 shot – the main reason Boston jumped to an impressive 33-22 lead in the first quarter.
He had some good moments in the first two games, but sometimes he stopped – he came into game 3, shooting only 37.5 percent from the floor.
The question would be whether he and the Celtics could withstand his strong start. Of course, he didn’t finish with 68 points, but Brown found many ways to contribute to the Celtics’ high 27 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
Once Brown started working, the Warriors’ defense was too weak. Tatum finished with 26 points and 9 assists, while Marcus Smart added 24 points and 5 assists, making them the first trio of teammates to win at least 20 points and 5 assists in the finals after Karim Abdul-Jabar, Magic Johnson and Michael. Cooper. that for the Los Angeles Lakers in 1984, according to ESPN.
The Celtics control the ball
From the Celtics’ point of view, the losses were the story of their finals. When they cough the ball 15 times or less, they are 12-2 in the playoffs. When he’s 16 or older, Boston is 1-5.
Game 2 was 19 turns for the Celtics and an outstanding victory for the Warriors. Brown and Tatum were some of the Celtics’ worst offenders, but the trick is to keep them aggressive, just tidier up.
“Knowing where you are, the boys will come in faster,” was the order of Celtics head coach Ime Udoka. “Many times we cut or cut, or receive signals and somehow clog the canvas. We want to distribute well, but the boys must be determined. Our implementers are implementers. They have improved as playmakers. Whether you go into the basket to score or make a pass, you have to read the room, read what they do a little differently from the other teams … [and] from there, just read it, but be aggressive. ”
There was a time when the Warriors managed to put Boston on the run with six minutes until the end of the third quarter, as they used a 10-0 series that included a live ball reversal from Boston, one of eight in the first half for 14 points. Warriors, but Brown and Tatum had only two combined. In the second half, the Celtics made only four turns, giving them 12 per game, improving their record to 13-2 when they made 15 turns or less.
The Warriors won the third quarter – again.
As CJ McCollum of the New Orleans Pelicans tweeted the other day, “The Warriors are the best third-quarter team I’ve ever seen.”
That was in Game 1, when the Warriors looked like they were going to beat Boston with a dominant performance after halftime, but the masses turned around when the Celtics became nuclear in the fourth. In Game 2, the Warriors did it again and managed to transfer momentum to the fourth for their own victory.
The big third quarters were their trademark. In their previous five finals, the Warriors ranked first among the playoff teams in a net ranking for the third quarter and entered the game 3 plus-9.5 per 100 possessions immediately after halftime. Nobody really knows why, it’s just that.
The difference in Game 3 was that the Warriors had to insist on staying in the game after falling behind by 12 at halftime. Curry was doing the hard work again. When he was fouled by Al Horford in a deep three-pointer and made a shot and a free throw, the four-point game reduced the Celtics’ lead to five. Then, as Horford’s foul was considered rough, the Warriors kept the ball and Otto Porter’s subsequent three-pointer took possession of seven points to reduce Boston’s lead to two.
Curry’s other triple – once again from a simple pick-and-roll action designed to attack Horford on the perimeter – gave the Warriors the lead, erasing the Celtics’ 18-point lead. Curry finished the quarter with 15 points in the period and Thompson with 10, but most importantly, the Warriors held Boston at 33 percent shooting during the period, a big improvement from the first half when Boston shot them at 57 percent.
The Celtics win the game for possession
Toronto Raptors fans may remember how this happens: sometimes it’s not how you shoot that matters, it’s how much. Boston dominated the Warriors in the offensive (15-6), leading to a 22-11 lead in points for a second chance. They were also careful with the ball in terms of speed, while doing a good job, harassing the Warriors to mistakes, as they made 16 turns to 12 from Boston.
As a result, Boston managed to make 11 more shots than the Warriors, which more than compensates for the fact that the Warriors had an advantage in shooting for three points, 15-13. The offensive glass seemed to tell a story. With two from Horford, Robert Williams and Grant Williams always on the floor, the Celtics looked bigger, stronger and faster than the Warriors, not to mention the size and athleticism that Brown, Tatum and Smart gave to their respective positions at the wing.
The Celtics pressed their lead most obviously in the fourth quarter, as they had an 8-1 lead in turnovers and a 4-0 lead in the offensive, when the Celtics won the final quarter 23-11.
Clay’s return
The only firm conclusion that can be drawn from Games 1 and 2 is that the Warriors will need someone to step up in support of Curry. In the first two games, it was certainly not Thompson who had played this role in the previous five Warriors final appearances. Thompson was unable to navigate the forest by long-armed Celtics defenders, as he was only 10 of 33 off the floor and 4 of 15 deep in games 1 and 2.
But Thompson – a 41 percent three-point career scorer after the season – had a plan: watch yourself on video.
“This is the beauty of the game in today’s age. You can go to YouTube and look for all your great moments, “he said before Game 3.… I remember being in college, when you experience a drop in shooting, the guys in the video will bring out a great game when everything seemed in tune. your body worked so well that the ball just flowed from your fingertips.
“God, probably only on YouTube ‘Game 6 Klay’, because there were some very high-pressure situations I was in. In the end, I shot the ball well. When you can do it, when your back is against the wall, you can do it at any time. It’s just about keeping it mentally strong. “
Thompson showed that he used his time well. He missed his first three shots, but eventually got a three-pointer to fall at the end of the first quarter and then scored 10 points in the first seven minutes of the second quarter to keep the Warriors in touch as the Celtics tried to pull away. .
“For me, it’s about keeping the same way shooters think,” he said. I’d rather go down to swing than be ashamed of my weapon.
He finished with 25 points and was 5 of 13 from depth.
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