Los Boston Celticswith a tremendous team performance, led by Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Marcus Smart, raised their voices at their home, the TD Garden, and defeated 116-100 this Wednesday at Golden State Warriors in Game 3 of the NBA Finals to take a 2-1 lead.
Ime Udoka’s team, who had paid for the 18 lost balls with a heavy defeat in the second game, limited them to twelve on the night of the Garden, in which the Dominican Al Horford y Robert Williams they dominated in the paint and helped the Celtics grab 58 rebounds, leaving only 38 to their rivals.
Brown scored 27 points, 17 of them in the first quarter, with nine rebounds and six assists, Jayson Tatum contributed 26 points, with six rebounds and nine assists, while Smart finished with 24 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
The three stars stood out for their great numbersbut in this victory Horford’s contribution of character weighed heavily, explained only partially by his eleven points, eight rebounds and six assists, as well as that of Robert Williams, who collected ten rebounds and ‘cleaned’ the paint with four plugs.
The Warriors were not enough 31 points from Steph Currywith six triples, nor the 25 and five triples of Klay Thompsonwho notably increased his shooting percentages, without a reward for Steve Kerr’s team.
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Andrew Wiggins He contributed 18 points and seven rebounds on a night in which Draymond Green failed to be decisive and only finished with two points, four rebounds and three assists, ending his game for six fouls with four minutes left.
BROWN, 17 POINTS IN THE FIRST QUARTER
Jaylen Brown had warned that his priority was to get on the court to play, without paying attention to rival pressures or provocations, and his start could not have been better. He started with of consecutive triples and showed the way to the Celtics with 17 points in the first period, with a three of four triples.
In a completely green-tinted Garden, and hungry for glory after a twelve-year wait to see their team again in a Finals, Brown and Horford dominated the opening stages. The Dominican, first NBA finalist in his country, showed off with great defensive work and a powerful mate for 26-11.
Superior on both sides of the court, dominant on the court and forceful with the ball in their handsthe Celtics escaped to the 18 point margin at 54-36led by a Tatum who scored or assisted in 12 straight points for his team.
SPARKS FLY WITH GREEN
Steve Kerr called time out to regroup his team’s ideas. And despite the obvious initial difficulties, the Warriors showed the stripes from a franchise that was in six of the last eight Finals, winning three of the previous five.
It didn’t take long for the first spark to fly Draymond Green, rebuked all night by the Garden fans. An irregular contact by Grant Williams increased the tension and the Warriors, to the rhythm of Wiggins, Klay Thompson and Curry, took a few seconds to give a signal to their rivals. Curry himself put his team seven points behind and it was to the credit of the competitiveness of Horford and Brown if the Celtics managed to stop that reaction and go to rest with twelve valuable rental points (68-56).
The power in painting, with 24 rebounds to fourteenof which eight to four offensive, rewarded Udoka’s men, who touched 60% in shots at the halfway point of the clash and who had 68 points at halftime after scoring 88 in the entire second game at the Chase Center.
But when that scoring rhythm got stuck, the Warriors did not miss the opportunity to reopen the duelwith a 12-0 run led by Curry, with a four-point play, by Horford’s flagrant, which gave the Californians the first advantage in 83-82.
THE CELTICS STOP THE COMEBACK
The Celtics were almost three minutes without scoring and against some Warriors in which Curry continued to delve into the rivals’ wounds at will, without letting himself be affected by foul problems, already four with more than nine minutes to play in the third period.
Marcus Smart and Grant Williams contained that push and kept their team ahead (93-89) until the fourth period. Considered eight of 32 in the quarter, it was a victory for Udoka’s men. He kept them confident and encouraged to face the decisive part, in which the competitive soul of the locals emerged.
The 9-2 to open the final quarterwith 3-pointers from Smart and a tremendous commitment in the fight in the paint, recharged the Garden with enthusiasm and put the distance in double figures with the Warriors.
They never gave up fight for balls divided the Celtics and in one of them, Horford provoked the Green’s sixth foulwhose match ended with 4.07 on the clock.
The Garden celebrated his walk off the court as much as it did, seconds later, when Al Horford offered Robert Williams the 112-98 alley-oop that was the sentence.
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Datasheet
116 Boston Celtics: Marcus Smart (24), Jaylen Brown (27), Jayson Tatum (26), Al Horford (11), Robert Williams III (8) -cinco inicial-, Derrick White (7), Payton Pritchard (3), Grant Williams (10), Fitts, Hauser, Morgan, Nesmith y Stauskas.
100 Golden State Warriors: Stephen Curry (31), Klay Thompson (25), Andrew Wiggins (18), Draymond Green (2), Kevon Looney (6) -cinco inicial-, Jordan Poole (10), Otto Porter Jr. (6), Gary Payton II (2), Iguodala, Kuminga, Lee, Moody y Toscano-Anderson.
Partials: 33-22, 35-34, 25-33, 23-11.
Incidences: Third game of the NBA Finals Series played at the TD Garden in Boston before 19,156 spectators.
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