BOSTON — Steve Kerr, the previous day’s election and the Jayson Tatum Olympic benching story weren’t necessary to add intrigue to the Celtics-Warriors matchup that already became mandatory viewing before the 2022 NBA Finals. Boston and Golden State split their 2022-23 series, the Celtics seemingly shaking off the Warriors thing with a tough overtime win at home that year before losing another close road game to begin 2023-24. In the Boston leg that season, Golden State toyed with ignoring Jaylen Brown and fell into a 56-point hole.
Draymond Green’s reliability became a question, Klay Thompson left and the Warriors struck out on reported pursuits of Paul George and Lauri Markkanen. Yet Steph Curry, Green and a new cast of defensive-minded Warriors came into TD Garden and continued rekindling their old ways in a new way. Golden State held the Celtics to 42.7% from the field, 35.2% from three and forced 12 turnovers, coming back behind by seven late to win 118-112 after leading by 14 points at halftime.
“They do a good job of changing up their defense,” Joe Mazzulla said. “They change after possessions, after timeouts, that’s one thing. Their shifts are really good. They force turnovers. They’re active. They do a really good job of both protecting the paint then just flying out forcing you to dribble into the paint and kind of create, am I open or not open? Is it a good shot or can I get a better one? These are the type of teams that want to defend late into the shot clock, so you gotta have great spacing and make your reads really fast.”
Here are some takeaways from a fun night…
- The Warriors held Tatum to an 0-for-4 start before he finished the game 10-of-20, but with two assists and four turnovers. Golden State didn’t fear helping aggressively on him around screens, and with Al Horford, Neemias Queta, Luke Kornet and Jordan Walsh logging the front court minutes, Boston couldn’t space five-out the way it wanted to. The Warriors could pack the paint and forced the Celtics to take 22 of their 89 shots in the final seven seconds of the shot clock. They average 16.4 out of 92. Golden State also pushed Tatum’s touches closer to four seconds on average, when he’s been averaging 3.58, and took the ball out of his hands, putting it into Derrick White’s for over 90 touches.
- White made the Warriors pay, taking 16 threes and hitting seven, but Jrue Holiday struggled from deep, Horford shot 2-of-6 and Golden State made a concerted effort to pressure Payton Pritchard (3-11 3PT) with extra bodies. When Payton II stuffed Pritchard on a close-out in the first quarter, it was only the second time this season a Celtics three-point shooter had their shot blocked.
“We know who the head of the snake (is),” Gary Payton II said at shootaround. “Make it tough on the head of the snake and hopefully it trickles down and makes everybody else (shoot) tough shots. We know Payton shoots 10 threes, so as soon as he gets in, we gotta find (him) … know where those guys are and make it tough on them.” - Boston out-shot the Warriors 54-35 in three-point attempts, a death sentence for most of their opponents earlier in the schedule, but Golden State shot more total shots due to 15 offensive rebounds. The Celtics generated 12, many in their near knockout third quarter, lost the free throw and the turnover battles narrowly, and with the Warriors’ transition advantage (17-8), lost a close game in crunch time. There, Golden State scored on five straight possessions, grabbed three offensive rebounds across two possessions and Kevon Looney poured two put-backs in to win the game. Mazzulla blamed the boards on bad bounces and watching Curry.
- The best look of crunch time came on a Holiday roll off Tatum against what looked like a box defense against Tatum, freeing Queta back line for an alley-oop dunk. Queta drew his second straight start with Brown out, Boston wanting to see how he held up in a difficult defensive matchup and he played stellar again. Early, he grabbed Andrew Wiggins’ layup try out of his hand then later, he blocked Curry off the backboard, piling up 14 points and eight rebounds (5 off.) along the way. He comfortably switched onto the perimeter and his presence proved all the more necessary with Boston missing so many shots. Luke Kornet struggled against the Warriors’ spacing, particularly with Buddy Hield on the floor, gave up three straight threes to Kyle Anderson and left the game with a hamstring injury.
- The crowd wasn’t exceptional on a Wednesday night, though Boston and Golden State still provide a unique atmosphere where legacy Warriors fans from their golden era invade the Garden alongside the Celtics’ strong crowd that has taken over road arenas routinely in recent years. It’s intriguing watching the franchise that started the three-point wave clash with the one taking it to a new level. A rush went through the crowd each time Curry and Tatum lined up one-on-one. Kerr commended how Boston plays five-out, something the Warriors never did. A Golden State player saw the Celtics force up 10 bad threes, “playing the math game.”
- It’s impressive how the Warriors have reinvented themselves around depth and defense. Moses Moody, Jonathan Kuminga and Trayce Jackson-Davis all gave Golden State solid minutes early before Looney and Payton II made late plays reminiscent of 2022. It makes sense how the Warriors generate so much defensive intensity with 11 players giving them double-digit minutes, and that’s with swing guard De’Anthony Melton out. Golden State’s depth played a role against the short-handed Celtics, with Kerr and Curry stressing that this is Boston with Brown and Kristaps Porziņģis out. They play again on Jan. 20 in San Francisco. Hopefully both teams can stay healthy enough to keep hope of a 2022 rematch, however likely, alive. The Warriors still seem to have something on Boston through Curry, their experience and the way they defend Tatum.
“We have a lot of fresh legs,” Payton II said. “It’s kind of like a line change. Another five come in fresh, ready to go, stay with the aggressiveness on defense, and when that’s out, another line change and get some fresh legs back in there so we can keep going … it helps. We got a lot of smart guys, a lot of vets in here, KA, Melton when he gets back. We got a lot of ways we can go. It helps tremendously.” - Kerr received loud boos for Tatum’s Olympic benching in pre-game introductions. I love the pause by Eddie Palladino drumming up his introduction. Celtics fans let out one exhale and it mostly went on the back burner for the rest of the night. Draymond sounded in shock at shootaround following the election, as much at a loss for words as you’ll ever hear him. Kerr reacted tongue-in-cheek, hoping for the best from Donald Trump, as Curry did after the game, while thankful that there was not widespread voting fraud this time.