The Celtics come back in the fourth quarter and stun the Warriors in Game 1 of the NBA Finals
The Boston Celtics saved their best for last, pulling off a huge fourth-quarter comeback to rout the Golden State Warriors 120-108 in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
After a hard-fought game, Boston ultimately won by a comfortable margin, thanks to a 17-0 fourth-quarter run to take the lead at the Chase Center in San Francisco.
According to ESPN, it was the second-best score in the final quarter of a Finals game in the last 50 seasons.
Al Horford led the Celtics with 26 points, while Jaylen Brown had 24 points, seven rebounds and five assists and Jayson Tatum had a double-double of 12 points and 13 assists. Derrick White added 21 points off the bench.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr said his players were “out of sorts,” but he wanted to give credit to Boston.
Kerr told the media: “You want to go and win the first one.”
“We had every opportunity, with a 12-point lead in the fourth. The guys are disappointed, as is normal. But it’s a seven-game series for a reason. I think you have to give credit to Boston. They came and they they earned the win. They played a great fourth quarter. We’ll get on the field, watch the film and see where we can improve, and then it’s a game.”
It all started well for the Warriors.
The team’s talisman, Steph Curry, exploded with 21 points in the first quarter, setting a new record for three-pointers made in a single quarter in the NBA Finals.
Thanks to Curry’s shooting — who finished the game with a game-high 34 points — Golden State led 87-72 with 2:10 left in the third quarter.
But then, thanks to a solid defense and a resistant attack, the Celtics returned to the surface.
Boston went on a 48-18 run — including a 17-0 fourth-quarter run — to sweep the Warriors on home court and take a potentially vital 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
While the loss will be a shock for Golden State, history shows that it’s not often that a loss turns into something worse: the Warriors have already lost the first game of a playoff series twice, and on both occasions they won the second.
Despite the shocking nature of the outcome, three-time NBA champion Draymond Green emphasized calm.
“It’s OK,” Green told reporters. You have the opportunity to do something else, to do it in a different way, to accept the challenge.”
“We have always accepted challenges. This is no different. We will accept this one too. So no, it’s not a confidence blow at all, not even a little bit. There’s nothing to panic about.”
Game two of the NBA Finals will be held Sunday at Chase Center.
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Source: edition.cnn.com
2023-12-28 22:31:19
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