SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – The ball moved, the shots fell and the arena swayed in a third quarter very familiar to the Golden State Warriors.
Then came the fourth quarter and a surprising collapse of the more experienced team, as the Warriors dropped a rare 1st game of a playoff series under coach Steve Kerr, losing Thursday in the night the first game of the NBA Finals by 120-108 against the Boston Celtics.
The Warriors turned a 12-point lead after three-quarters into a 12-point loss in a shocking change that silenced a boisterous crowd that had celebrated Golden State’s return to the final after a two-year absence.
Boston made his first seven triples in the quarter and ran away, resulting in chants of “Let’s Go Celtics!” in the last seconds on a half-empty track. The Warriors scored just 16 points in the fourth quarter after a 38-point explosion in the third had apparently put them in control.
The fall left the Warriors complaining to officials and looking for answers after their first home defeat in those playoffs after opening with nine straight wins.
It was the biggest advantage after three-quarters of an NBA Finals game in 30 years, as the seasoned Warriors fell apart instead of a Celtics team full of newcomers to the Finals. The last team to lose a game in the Finals when they advanced by at least 12 points after three quarters was Portland in 1992 in a loss that ended the sixth game series against Michael Jordan and the Bulls.
The loss of the first game was only the third in 24 playoff series for the Warriors under coach Steve Kerr, while the others reached the 2019 Finals against Toronto and the 2016 Western Conference Finals. against Oklahoma City.
He also overshadowed what had been a stunning start by Stephen Curry, who set a record of six triples and scored 21 points in the first quarter.
But the Celtics adjusted and Curry made just one triple and scored 13 points the rest of the way.
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