CURRY, WARRIORS WIN GAME 4, EVEN SERIES
Star guard drops 43, Thompson adds 18 to help Golden State beat Boston
BOSTON » Stephen Curry put to rest any concern about his health from the moment he stepped on the court Friday night as he put on a vintage performance in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, dropping 43 points and nailing seven 3-pointers.
Curry and Klay Thompson led the Warriors on a 10-0 run during a hard-fought fourth quarter en route to the Warriors’ 10797 win over the Celtics.
Curry was so impressive that a faint but noticeable “M-V-P” chant started at TD Garden when he shot free throws in the game’s final seconds.
The lead flipped back-andforth in the final 12 minutes before the Warriors pulled away to even the series before it returns to the West Coast.
Despite playing through pain after injuring his foot while scrambling for a loose ball in Game 3, Curry was again the Warriors’ best player on the court. The Celtics smothered Curry with double teams, but he still found a way to score and make plays.
Curry was as animated as ever throughout the game. Celebrating a shot from downtown by trash talking Celtics fans, he also jumped near an official in frustration when they missed a foul call on one of his baskets.
This was Curry’s 13th 30-plus point playoff game, which tied him with Kobe Bryant as the eighth most in league history.
Porous perimeter defense by the Warriors allowed the Celtics to go 15-for-38 from deep, with some of those attempts uncontested.
Meanwhile, the Warriors, embodying an air-raid offense, shot 15-for-43 from downtown.
With the Warriors playing from behind in the series, coach Steve Kerr opted to go small at the start, inserting Otto Porter Jr. in for Kevon Looney as a way to spread the floor.
The Warriors started the game out of sync before settling in. An irate coach Kerr argued
nearly every call before he was slapped with a technical foul in the second quarter as the Warriors showed a fierceness not seen in the Game 3 loss.
Jordan Poole, who has struggled in this series save for the second half of Game 2, found his offensive rhythm as he helped carry the Warriors at the beginning of the second quarter when Curry was on the bench. Poole hit back-to-back shots to open the second quarter on a 5-0 run, forcing the Celtics to call a timeout. He screamed at the green-and-white-peppered crowd before joining his team.
Poole finished with 14 points off the bench.
Draymond Green again played like a shell of his former self while the TD Garden crowd showered him with boos and profanity-laced chants. In 32 minutes, he finished with eight
rebounds and eight assists while going 1-for-7 from the field for two points.
Kerr even pulled Green for a stretch of the fourth quarter, opting to go without him for nearly four minutes. It worked, as Golden State turned a four-point deficit into a three-point lead with him off the floor.
Jayson Tatum finished with 23 points, Jaylen Brown had 21 and Marcus Smart added 18. Robert Williams III, who’s been
playing through a left knee injury, had 12 rebounds, two blocks and a steal.
The Warriors and Celtics are knotted up at 2-2 as the best-of-seven series shifts back to San Francisco, with Game 5 on Monday.
The Warriors have been nearly unbeatable this postseason at Chase Center, where they possess a 10-1 playoff record. Their one home loss came at the hands of the Celtics in Game 1.