For a brief moment in the 4th quarter of Thursday’s battle between the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors, it looked like Golden State’s desperate full-court-pressing defense might lead the team to an improbable comeback. Then Payton Pritchard sank back-to-back three-pointers to put the game out of reach.
The Warriors rewarded the home fans who didn’t leave with their team down 29 points after three quarters with an exciting too-little, too-late surge in the final quarter that included a 15-0
run. Unfortunately, the run only cut the lead to 15 points in a game where the Warriors made 20 threes without either Curry brother, but mostly struggled to score.
Jaylen Brown delighted the fans who supported him since his college days at Cal by putting up 23 points, 15 rebounds, and 13 assists and only two turnovers. Pritchard scored 26 points and shot 6-for-11 from three-point range, while delivering seven assists. Sam Hauser went 4-for-5 from behind the arc and Ron Harper, Jr.’s six points had to sting against a Warriors team that started the season with five sons of NBA players on their roster.
The first quarter was relatively even thanks to seven points from De’Anthony Melton and an 11-point effort from Will Richard that culminated in his nailing a stepback three-pointer to beat the buzzer.
Two things happened early in the second quarter. Kristaps Porzingis made his Warriors debut, and the Celtics ripped off a 17-2 run to start the quarter. That’s not to single out Porzingis, who was playing his first game in six weeks under less than ideal circumstances: No Steph Curry, plenty of rust, and anchoring a lineup of Pat Spencer-Richard-Moses Moody-Draymond Green against his old team.
The Celtics doubled Porzingis whenever he touched the ball, the other Warriors couldn’t make them pay, and Boston scored on their first six possessions of the quarter. Steve Kerr was so frustrated that he made a hockey substitution four minutes, replacing all five players on the court after a timeout. He probably did that because 35-year-old Nikola Vucevic ran past the defense for a layup.
It helped, but not enough. Richard got a few more buckets, scoring 15 of his 17 points before halftime. At one point, Gui Santos and Porzingis scored 10 points in five possessions on three-pointers, layups and dunks — and the Celtics made four three-pointers in that stretch to extend their lead. After a signature buzzer-beating basket from Pritchard, Boston had a 22-point halftime lead.
There were three big problems for the Warriors. One, they couldn’t stop Brown’s penetration, as he got into the lane with ease, often not even seeming to be moving at full speed. He got a season-high 13 assists partly because the Warriors defense had to over-commit to him, often failing to slow him down even with multiple defenders.
If that wasn’t enough, he helped the Celtics crush the Dubs on the boards, 54-40, by grabbing 15 defensive rebounds.
The second problem was that the Celtics are a poor matchup for the Warriors defense. The Warriors defense relies on forcing turnovers, ranking third in steals and fourth in opponent’s turnovers. The Celtics commit the NBA’s fewest turnovers. The Warriors give up a lot of three-pointers — 12.5 per game. The Celtics make a lot of threes, 15.4 per game, third in the NBA. Thursday, Boston shot 43% from downtown, even with Brown and Derrick White missing all eight of their attempts.
The third issue is that the Warriors weren’t able to drive to the hoop. Brown and Derrick White are elite defenders, but the Dubs struggled to get part Pritchard and Baylor Scheierman as well. They don’t have a single player in the top 75 in drives per game (Steph Curry is 76th) and it really limits the offense.
As a side effect of the game being a blowout and the teams combining to shoot 95 threes, there was a remarkably small number of free throws, just seven for the Celtics and eight for the Warriors. Boston committed just six fouls in total, three by Brown.
Gary Payton II had a nice performance, scoring 14 points in 18 minutes and ending up +15 for the game.
Gui Santos continued to embrace his high-usage role, leading the team with 14 field-goal attempts (he was 6-for-14, and 5-for-9 from deep). He also managed a positive plus/minus while scoring 17 points and grabbing six boards. Draymond Green had a rough one, missing all seven of his shots, getting two rebounds and three assists, and sitting for most of the second half — not his most competitive effort.
When the highlight of your game is a 15-0 run while down 30 points, it’s not a great sign. But the Warriors are still showing a lot of fight as they wait for Steph Curry to come back. There just not showing a lot of talent.
