June 2, 2022, 11:31 PM ET
June 2, 2022, 11:31 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO – After a long and eventful road to the NBA Finals, Golden State took a whole week to rest and recover before facing the Boston Celtics in the first game of the NBA. Thursday night.
Golden State’s modest break ended abruptly. Boston made sure of that, stunning Golden State, 120-108, to take the opening game of the best of seven series at the Chase Center.
The Celtics relied on their depth to clear a 15-point lead in the second half. At Horford he scored 26 points, the team’s highest, while Jaylen Brown added 24 and Derrick White scored 21 from the bench.
Jayson Tatum scored just 12 points in the win while shooting 3 of 17 from the field, but had a maximum of 13 assists. The Celtics also managed to overcome a turbulent effort by Stephen Curry of Golden State, who scored 34 points.
The second game is on Sunday night in San Francisco.
In pre-match statements, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver noted how the final faced two of the league’s original franchises, a series suitable for the NBA, which has celebrated its 75th anniversary this season. The Philadelphia Warriors won their first league championship in 1947, when they took care of the Chicago Stags in five games. The Celtics are chasing their 18th title, and their first since 2008.
The finals, of course, are familiar ground for the famous Golden State stars. Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are making their sixth appearance in the final in the last eight seasons. And the Warriors had seemed familiarly dominant in needing just five games to eliminate the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals.
The Celtics, on the other hand, were coming off a strong seven-game series with the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals. Prior to Game 1 against Golden State, Marcus Smart and Robert Williams III were still recovering from injuries. And Tatum and Brown, the two young Celtics stars, had been providing great minutes during the playoffs.
Golden State seemed ready to jump all over Boston at first. Only in the first quarter, Curry sank six triples – a final triple record in a quarter – and scored 21 points with Golden State leading by 10. Even Andre Iguodala came into play, providing his first minutes. from the first lap after losing most of the postseason with back problems.
But the Celtics are not in the final by chance. They produced the league’s highest-rated defense in the regular season and increased pressure on Curry as the game progressed. Think of a single possession in the second quarter as Curry tried to work freely out of a series of screens. White defended him, then Tatum, then Smart, the league’s defensive player of the year. Surprise: Curry didn’t find an opening.
Jordan Poole closed out the first half for Golden State with a 3-point attempt from the top of the board, and the Celtics led, 56-54. A crowd dressed in gold that had roared for much of the half seemed to be in a collective stupor. An adult snack was waiting for many fans in the lobby.
Golden State is famous for its explosive third-quarters, though, and Thursday’s version was no different. When Curry threw an acrobatic tray, Golden State was recovered by 9.
But driven by unknown players like White and Payton Pritchard, the Celtics made a big streak in the fourth quarter, taking a 109-103 lead when Horford sank into three consecutive triples.
The fans started spinning towards the exits in the final minute.
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