Just when you start to have confidence in the Celtics this postseason, they completely disappoint you and fall flat on their faces. Tonight at TD Garden in Game 4 of the 2022 NBA Finals and with a golden opportunity to take a commanding 3-1 lead in the series, the Warriors closed up shop on a 17-3 run to win 107-97 and even up things up at 2-2. Golden State improved to 6-0 this postseason following a loss. Similar to the second round where they lost Game 5 to Milwaukee or in the Eastern Conference Finals vs. Miami where they choked in Game 6, Boston once again found a way to falter in a major way on their home court. They fell to 6-5 at the Garden this postseason including a puzzling 4-5 record in the last three rounds (forget the sweep vs. the hapless Nets). Golden State's superstar point guard Stephen Curry (43 points, 10 rebounds) had one of the best games of his Hall of Fame career as he singularly willed his team to victory. Game 5 is at the Chase Center in Oakland on Monday (9, ABC).
It was all about Curry but Warriors shooting guard Klay Thompson added 18 points and two blocks, small forward Andrew Wiggins notched 17 points and 16 rebounds (!) while backup shooting guard Jordan Poole put up 14 points off the bench. Power forward Draymond Green was slightly more useful than his Game 3 no-show as he had nine rebounds, eight assists and four steals. For Boston, small forward Jayson Tatum (23 points, 11 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 blocks) and shooting guard Jaylen Brown (21 points, 6 rebounds) were both OK but neither of them could rescue their team as they collectively went ice cold in crunch time yet again. Point guard Marcus Smart (18 points, 5 assists, 4 steals) was fine until he kept taking 3-pointers and missing them late in the fourth quarter (sound familiar?) and power forward Robert Williams grabbed 12 rebounds. Finally, backup point guard Derrick White notched 16 points off the bench for the Celtics.
This was the first close game of the series so you had an uneasy feeling the whole night as Boston could never really separate from Golden State. Boston was up 28-27 after the first quarter and they led by five points at halftime (54-49). Their regularly scheduled third quarter collapse wasn't as terrible as usual (30-24 Warriors) but the change was that the fourth quarter-which Boston had owned in the first two games-was utterly dominated by the road team. The Warriors outscored the Celtics 28-19 as Curry could not be stopped and nobody on the C's could do much to stem his barrage (7-for-14 for the game) of three-pointers.
The numbers as you would expect were not pretty for the home team: Golden State grabbed 13 more rebounds (55-42) including five more offensive boards (16-11) and the Warriors had seven more second chance points (19-12). With Boston's size advantage, that rebound total is unacceptable especially on their home floor. The Warriors also shot four percent better than the Celtics from the field (44%-40%). If I know anything about the Celts, they will probably play great on Monday and grab another road win to take a 3-2 series lead with a chance to win Banner 18 back at the Garden on Thursday (9, ABC). Then again, Curry is clearly the best player in this series (and a lock to capture his first Finals MVP award if they win another title) who the NBA's top-ranked defense has no idea how to stop let alone slow down. Don't get it twisted though, the Celtics are the better team and if they lose to this mostly one-man wrecking crew, it will be a bitter pill to swallow for this summer and many years beyond it.
No comments:
Post a Comment