Warriors defiant in wake of collapse
Core players trust team’s ability to mount big comebacks
As his core players checked out with 48.3 seconds left on the game clock Thursday night, Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr gave them a fist bump and a nod.
This was no time to panic. After they took a 12-point lead into the fourth quarter, the Warriors landed on the wrong end of a 17-0 run, silencing a once-raucous Chase Center crowd on their way to a 120-108 loss to the Celtics in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. But instead of lambasting Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and others as they arrived at the bench, Kerr tried to keep them positive.
In less than a five-minute stretch of that fourth quarter, the Celtics showed why so many analysts picked them to win this series: the relentless defense, the clutch shooting, the resilience. To defy odds and storm back for a title in the wake of a Game 1 loss, the Warriors must first believe they’re capable.
That shouldn’t be a problem. Just to reach these Finals, the Warriors had to survive backto-back lottery trips, a slew of injuries to key players and a late-season swoon. One defeat, even on a big stage and in a fashion as frustrating as Thursday’s, won’t hurt Golden State’s self-belief.
About a half-hour after the final buzzer sounded, Green leaned forward in his seat, surveyed the box score in front of him, and saw that three of the Celtics’ complementary scorers — Marcus Smart, Al Horford and Derrick White — had shot a combined 15-for-23 from 3point range. With a smirk, Green said, “We’ll be fine.”
The implication was that he wasn’t convinced the blueprint Boston followed to victory Thursday was replicable. During that game-changing run, the Celtics shot 6-for-11 from the field (5-for-8 from 3-point range) while the Warriors struggled to find open looks and went scoreless.
Many of Boston’s nine made fourth-quarter 3-pointers were the kind Golden State typically likes to surrender against this team: kick-outs to players not named Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown. But without a defender within several feet, Smart, Horford and White knocked down shot after shot. By the time Klay Thompson finally hit a layup with 1:09 left to end the Warriors’ scoring drought, Golden State trailed by 12.
“Every time we got the ball in the middle, they collapsed the paint and kick-outs were wide open there,” said Celtics head coach Ime Udoka, whose team outscored the Warriors 40-16 in the fourth quarter after weathering a 38-24 blitz in the third. “Guys stepped up and made them. We’ll take that all the time.”
The Warriors appeared to find solace in the fact that Smart, Horford and White are unlikely to have such collective success beyond the arc again. Even though that might be true, the Celtics have even more reasons to be optimistic.
They just stole homecourt on a night their best player, Tatum, scored 12 points on 3-for-17 shooting (1-for-5 from 3-point range). And as Udoka put it postgame, “We didn’t play our best at all.” The Celtics had a tough time with the Warriors’ ball movement, particularly as it pertained to Curry, and appeared disjointed for much of the first three quarters.
But just as a win appeared to be slipping away, Boston opened the fourth on a 9-0 spurt to quiet the crowd and remind itself what got it this far. The Warriors had little answer for the Celtics’ physicality as they hoisted ill-advised shots and committed turnovers.
“Boston just played a brilliant quarter,” Kerr said. “They came in and earned the win.”
This was the type of lategame swing that Golden State is accustomed to authoring — not enduring. Since Kerr took over in 2014, the Warriors have won 12 playoff games after trailing by at least 15 points. No other team in that span has more than six such victories.
In the Celtics, the Warriors have found an opponent with a rare mix of defense, selflessness and tenacity. There is a reason why many have dubbed Boston a “team of destiny.” Since the start of the new year, no club has caused more problems for the opposition than the Celtics.
But in the immediate aftermath of Thursday’s fourthquarter collapse, Warriors players showed no hint of fear. Green went so far as to proclaim, “We pretty much dominated the game for the first 41, 42 minutes.” Others discussed adjustments and expressed confidence that the Warriors would be far better in Game 2 on Sunday.
That is fair, especially from a team in its sixth Finals in eight years. The question is whether the Warriors’ “better” will be enough to avoid a 2-0 series hole.
If the Celtics proved anything Thursday, it’s that the hype around them was not mere hyperbole. This is a connected, well-coached group that believes its time has arrived.
“Everybody is upset that we lost, but I think the confidence is still there,” Warriors center Kevon Looney said. “We know what we need to do to win. Just try to go out there and execute better.”