There’s only one guarantee about the remainder of this series: You won’t hear any more chatter about the Celtics being too, ahem, green in the Finals.
The Celtics arrived here with little rest, were on the road against a team previously unbeaten in this building in the playoffs, were down 12 to start the fourth quarter, staring at a percolating Stephen Curry, with Jayson Tatum unable to get buckets
Did the Celtics actually out-small the Warriors and also out-shoot them from deep? Sure did, managing to throw the Finals and the Warriors for a loop.
The Celtics beat the Warriors at their own game
The usual roles were reversed and the outcome was delivered in a most unanticipated manner: The Celtics shot 51% from deep for the game and made seven 3s to start the fourth.
Curry is on a mission to not only win a fourth championship, but also a first Finals MVP award. Wasn’t that evident by how he started the game, and partly how he finished?
It wasn’t all bad for the Warrior
Curry doesn’t own a catalogue of brilliant Finals performances, which is why he also doesn’t own that MVP trophy, either. He scored 21 points in the first quarter when the Celtics, for some reason, played a drop coverage and went under screens, leaving Curry open looks.
The Al Horford Comeback Tour is busy spreading pixie dust once again, this time fueling a player who turns 37 Friday, here in the Finals, where he’s never been until now.
You can call him Al Hungry
After what he did against the Bucks and Heat in the previous rounds, a grand entrance in the Finals shouldn’t be much of a surprise.
And that’s what should concern the Warriors. Not only did they lose a game with Tatum misfiring (3-17 FGs), they must anticipate a strong Game 2 response.
The ball didn’t fall right for Tatum
Tatum has been mostly magnificent this postseason, though he did have some duds: shooting 5-for-16 in one game against the Nets, 4-for-19 in another against the Bucks, 3-for-14 once against Miami.