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What we learned as Steph leads the Warriors’ win against the Celtics originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
In their first meeting with the NBA’s certified elite this season, the Warriors got a taste of how close they are to joining that exclusive club.
Not only good enough to compete with the defending champion Boston Celtics, but also durable enough to take them down.
Although they led by 14 early in the second half, the Warriors held off Boston’s onslaught over the final 23 minutes and finished with a deeply satisfying 118-112 victory Wednesday night at TD Garden.
Five Warriors scored in double figures, with Stephen Curry leading the way with 27 points. Andrew Wiggins and Buddy Hield each scored 16, Kyle Anderson had 11 and Jonathan Kuminga 10 as the Warriors moved to 7-1 this season and 5-0 on the road.
After trailing early, the Warriors pulled ahead in the second quarter and stayed on top behind fierce defense and strong bench play until the Celtics stormed back in the fourth quarter, briefly taking a lead before Golden State will recover and shut them down.
Here are three takeaways from a game against one of the best teams in the league, in one of the toughest buildings in the league.
Steph looks great
After a quiet first half, with six points in 17 minutes, Curry found his rhythm in the second half and put together a performance that kept the Warriors from completely falling apart.
Curry scored 21 points after halftime on 6-of-14 shooting from the field, including 3-of-9 from beyond the arc. He had an answer for almost every Boston run, with 11 points in the third quarter and 10 more in the fourth.
Curry’s 27 points came on 8-of-17 shooting from the field, including 4-of-9 from deep and 7-of-7 from the line. Just in case, he added nine assists, seven rebounds and four steals.
Although Curry returned to action just two days ago after missing a week with a sprained left ankle, he felt good enough to play a season-high 34 minutes, finishing plus-7.
curry too moved to 30th place on the race score list, passing Charles Barkley, frequent Golden State critic in the process.
The bank brings early life
Any hope of a quick start to quiet the crowd was quickly dashed, as the Warriors were sleepy from the start, missing 10 of their first 11 shots and falling behind by 11 (14-3) in five minutes.
The party didn’t start until Warriors coach Steve Kerr headed to his bench, summoning Gary Payton II and Buddy Hield. They woke the team up, anchoring a 16-5 run, with Payton and Hield contributing 12 of the 16 points. The bench contributed 14 of the 19 points in the first quarter.
The momentum carried into the second quarter, which the Warriors opened on a 14-5 run, taking a 33-29 lead and causing the Celtics to call a full timeout.
Mainly behind Hield, Anderson, Kuminga and Payton, Golden State’s bench, the most productive in the NBA, contributed 28 of the team’s 51 points in the first half and 49 in the game.
JT’s (almost) revenge
Kerr was subdued to loud and prolonged boos during pregame introductions, not because the Warriors won the NBA Finals on that court in 2022, but because of his sin in the role of head coach of the US basketball team.
Because Kerr benched Celtics star Jayson Tatum for two of the six games during the Olympics in Paris, there were some raw feelings in Boston. It didn’t matter that Tatum earned a gold medal as Team USA advanced undefeated through the games. What matters in Boston is that their boy didn’t get as much of a run as they thought he had.
Although Tatum publicly downplayed the issue, it’s reasonable to believe he felt abandoned.
If he was looking for revenge, he got it in the third quarter. After an eight-point first half on 2-of-7 shooting from the field, including 1-of-2 from deep, he scored 17 in the third. He was 5 of 7 on field goals and 4 of 6 on distance shots.
He was primarily responsible for the Warriors’ failure to extend their 11-point halftime lead, as the Celtics’ 41 points in the third quarter (after just 40 in the first half) brought them within one. room.
By scoring a game-high 30 points, Tatum did his part to rally his team. It wasn’t enough.