SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – As in Game 1, the Golden State Warriors took the lead with a great third quarter.
Unlike Game 1, they finished the job.
The NBA Finals are tied, after the Warriors turned a tight game into a loss with a third-quarter masterpiece. Stephen Curry scored 29 points, Jordan Poole connected from inside the midfield to end the crucial period and the Warriors beat the Boston Celtics 107-88 Sunday night in the second game.
“I thought everyone was more engaged,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after his team improved to 5-0 after a loss in the playoffs. “It’s pretty obvious. Only our level of strength and physique went up quite a bit, and that had to be it.”
Poole finished with 17 points for the Warriors, who beat Boston 35-14 in the third quarter to turn a two-point lead at halftime into a 23-point lead. And when the Warriors scored the first six points of the quarter, the Celtics waved the surrender flag and emptied the bench.
“We said we had to play desperately,” Curry said. “That’s what we did.”
Golden State also got 12 from Kevon Looney on 6-of-6 shots, and 11 each from Andrew Wiggins and Klay Thompson.
Jayson Tatum scored 21 of his 28 points in the first half for Boston. Jaylen Brown added 17 for the Celtics, but struggled for a night of 5 of 17 shots, and Derrick White scored 12.
As in Game 1, a great run decided everything. The Celtics made a 48-18 run in the second half to decide the first goal. The Warriors didn’t wait that long in the second game, with a 43-14 lead from the end of the first half to the beginning of the fourth quarter to turn a draw into an absolute escape.
The third game is in Boston on Wednesday.
Curry had 14 of his points in the third, making three of his five triples in the fourth. Boston was 4 of 15 in the fourth, outscored 21-6 in 3 and let the Warriors turn five losses into 11 points.
“Steph was awesome that quarter,” Kerr said.
The Celtics turned a 15-point deficit in the third quarter into a 15-point lead in the fourth quarter in Game 1, but that didn’t happen again on Sunday. Boston coach Ime Udoka even picked up a technician to try to show his displeasure with things, including whistles or lack thereof, to no avail.
“I just let them know how I felt during the match in a demonstrative way, on purpose, to get a technique,” Udoka said.
Poole provided the exclamation point at the close of the third quarter, making a pass in the final seconds, dribbling over the half-track strip, creating some space and letting it fly.
Swish.
Curry greeted him with a smile and a hug, Chase Center fans jumped up — if they weren’t there yet — and the outcome was pretty much decided.
And for the first time, the crowd in the new Warriors building finally saw the Celtics lose. Boston went into the home of the 3-year-old Warriors 4-0 tonight, the only team to have won their first four games in the arena.
But giving up 33 points out of 19 losses meant the streak had no chance of continuing.
“We have to take better care of the ball,” Tatum said.
The Celtics opted to join only two more teams, the 1993 Chicago Bulls and the 1995 Houston Rockets, on the list of clubs that swept two road games to open the final. Those Bulls and Rockets won the championship, and 31 of the previous 36 teams that opened with a 2-0 lead ended up holding a title.
Not everything is lost on Boston. The Celtics only need to win their remaining home games to become champions, though that won’t be easy against a Warriors team that has won at least one road game in a straight 26-game playoff series. the NBA.
“That’s what it is,” said Celtics ’Al Horford, who racked up 26 points in the first game and held on to two points on Sunday. “In the third game.”
ADVICES
Celtics: The Celtics fell 8-3 on the road in these playoffs. They remain tied for second road victories in a single postseason; the record is back, set by Houston in 1995. … Robert Williams III, who has had knee problems during the playoffs, suffered a hard fall in the third quarter after falling to Marcus Smart. He was substituted 21 seconds later and did not return. … Tatum and Brown had 40 of Boston’s top 54 points.
Warriors: Draymond Green’s impact on Game 2: Nine points, seven assists, five rebounds, a technical foul and a lot of physicality. “No impact,” Horford said. … Andre Iguodala (swollen right knee) was down for Game 2, after recording 12 minutes in Game 1. But his knee swelled on Saturday and he sat down for the 13th time in the Warriors’ last game. 14 games … Gary Payton II played for the first time since breaking his elbow in the Memphis series.
BIG QUARTERS
The Warriors’ 35-14 lead in the third quarter was the 91st quarter different of these playoffs where one team had a double-digit margin over the other. This is the highest in a single year of the playoffs, surpassing 90 such quarters in the 2017 playoffs.
STATEMENT GAME
Players and coaches of both teams wore orange T-shirts before the match with the words “End Armed Violence” in front of them, a theme that Kerr, whose father was killed in an act of armed violence 38 years ago, has often spoken. . “It’s about convincing politicians that things like background checks are really crucial and things that don’t affect people’s Second Amendment rights,” Kerr said.
SPECTACULAR ANNIVERSARY
Sunday marked the 31st anniversary of Michael Jordan’s first NBA Finals victory, when he and the Chicago Bulls beat the Los Angeles Lakers in the second game in 1991. Jordan made 13 consecutive shots in that game. party, the last of which was the iconic change. -hands outdoors in the fourth quarter. “A spectacular play by Michael Jordan,” was the call of NBC announcer Marv Albert.
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