The game 4 of the NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Boston Celtics was essentially a heavyweight fight for 48 minutes with two sides getting big hits. However, in the end, it was Stephen Curry and the Warriors who made enough plays to get a 107-97 victory to tie the game at 2-2 and keep their championship aspirations alive.
Curry was great for Golden State to finish with a maximum of 43 points for the game along with 10 rebounds, but he was far from the only Warriors player to increase a lot when the team needed him the most, as Andrew Wiggins he had a monstrous game. own with 17 points and 16 rebounds. Klay Thompson and Jordan Poole also did their part combining by 32 points.
At the other end of the spectrum, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown led the charge for Boston, but their respective efforts were not enough for the Celtics to equalize Curry’s big night.
With the Warriors winning, Monday night’s game 5 at the Chase Center should be as intense as any game we’ve seen this postseason.
Here are three key points in the game:
1. Curry has a special night
Steph Curry had been fantastic during the first three games of this series, and it was even better Friday night. He finished with 43 points, 10 rebounds and four assists, made seven triples and shot 14 of 26 from the field. This was a really special performance from one of the greatest of all time in the game.
For starters, this wasn’t like game 1 or some stretches of game 3 where the Celtics were having defensive breakdowns and giving Curry too much space. They were locked in the commission, chasing Curry all over the court and getting good contests in most of his shots. It just didn’t matter. He is the best shooter of all time, and he proved it once again in Game 4.
Also, the Warriors needed all 43 Curry points. They were on the road in a hostile environment, 2-1 and ahead for long stretches of the match. No one else was up and running – the rest of the team shot 40 percent from the field – and there were several points during the night that looked like the Celtics could get away. Curry never let it pass.
Klay Thompson, who has been with Curry all this trip, called her her best performance in the final:
“I think [it ranks] probably number 1, “Thompson said. I mean, their conditioning is unmatched in this league. Steph played amazing. “
2. The Celtics’ final attack burns them again
The Celtics closed out the regular season with a 28-7 run and, oddly enough, may have been a little too good over the last few months. Twenty of those wins were double-digit, including 15 by at least 20 points. They were destroying teams absolutely, which meant they didn’t have many opportunities to work on one of their main flaws: the attack at the end of the game.
Even in the playoffs, a bit of the same story has happened. Eight of his 14 wins have been double-digit, and that number should probably be higher. Aside from the first game of the first round against the Brooklyn Nets, there were not many positive moments at the end of this team’s game. They were unable to hold on to an advantage at the end of Game 3 against the Milwaukee Bucks and completely collapsed in Game 5 of this series. In the Eastern Conference finals against the Heat, they were unable to complete a comeback in Game 3, were unable to hold on to the late lead in Game 6 and nearly dropped Game 7 in a disastrous manner.
Now, you can add Game 4 of the final to the list of fights at the end of the game. In the middle of the quarter, Jaylen Brown took charge of the game for a short stretch, scoring six straight points to put the Celtics ahead. Then Marcus Smart added a free kick to put the Celtics 91-86 with 7:32 of the end. They had a window there to get away and potentially go up 3-1. Instead, they scored six points the rest of the game and gave up the home court advantage.
“I stopped for a while,” Celtics coach Ime Udoka said. “When we took action off the ball and did a little bit of movement, we looked really good.”
“We wanted to get the ball up quickly and go on an offensive. If we don’t have anything, still make them work the clock. Many times it seemed like we were standing still, not knowing who we were trying to go to. Then, and it led to those stagnant possessions.” .
When a game is five points away with five minutes to go, this is defined as the clutch time, and the Warriors beat the Celtics 15-0 in those minutes in Game 4. This is the highest differential. in a final match of the last 25 years. , according to ESPN Statistics and Information.
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3. Wiggins hits the glass
After his starring role defending Luka Doncic in the Western Conference Finals, Andrew Wiggins has felt like a man sometimes forgotten in this series. While he hadn’t been bad during the first three games, he didn’t have much of an impact. That changed in Game 4, though not in the way you would expect.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr had to make a substitution after 58 minutes. to Kevon Looney’s starting lineup. Making small has its advantages, but the rebound is not usually one of them, and we saw that the Warriors were crushed to the glass in Game 3. Friday was again a danger, but Wiggins did not let it pass.
“Wiggs was great,” Kerr said. “To go against Boston, you have to deal with Tatum and Brown, and they’re just powerful, skilled players. Great size. They’re constantly coming down, so we had to have Wiggs out there. I thought he was great defensively. Obviously 16 rebounds, the maximum run and over-20 at night. So we needed all of Wiggs’ contributions. “
He was a glass machine, catching 16 rebounds, the highest of his career, to help the Warriors win the 55-42 rebounding battle. While he did most of his defensive cup work, he also made a few clutch rebounds in the fourth quarter to get the Warriors some important points other than Curry. The Warriors had 19 second-chance points against the Celtics’ 12 in a 10-game winning streak.
Most of the coverage of this game will focus on Curry, and rightly so, but the Warriors don’t win without a herculean effort from Wiggins. This was not the most spectacular or highest-scoring start of his career, but it was by far his most important. He finished with 17 points and 16 rebounds in 43 minutes, and the Warriors were over-20 with him on the ground.
“I want to win,” Wiggins said. “I know the rebound is a big part of that. I just want to win. And I feel like sometimes we play small. So I just try to get in there and bounce, help the team.”