Celtics Ride Huge 4th Quarter Comeback to Game 1 Win
June 2, 2022
The Celtics knew they would have their work cut out for them to win the NBA Finals, but especially to win game one in Golden State. The prevailing narrative seemed to be that the Warriors had more rest, more experience, and had home court advantage. While the Celtics were coming off a brutally taxing seven game slugfest with the Heat, and not a single player on the team had a second of experience in the NBA finals. Early in the game, this seemed to be the case. Boston looked nervous and a little tight, making mistakes - especially on defense - and taking some time to lose the jitters and settle into a basketball game. Through three quarters, the Warriors had mostly been dominant and it appeared as if game one would be mostly a learning experience for Boston. But everything shifted in the fourth quarter, as the Celtics completely dismantled the Warriors on both ends to the tune of a 40-16 run, going from down 12, to up 15, eventually emptying the bench and coming away with a monumental 120-108 game one victory in Chase Center.
Golden State came out swinging right from the get-go, looking by far the more comfortable and composed side. They were executing the typical Warriors offense, and doing everything the Celtics feared most; chiefly freeing Stephen Curry for open shots. The Celtics defenders were just as responsible for this, as they showed a lack of communication that has rarely been seen over the last few months. They bizarrely lost track of Curry on several occasions in the opening quarter, allowing the two-time league MVP to launch at will from deep and finish the opening quarter with 21 points and a new finals record, six made three pointers. The uncharacteristic lapses on defense were completely unacceptable, especially because that is probably the most important focus when playing this Warriors offense. Despite the poor play, the Celtics were able to push the pace and find some soft spots in the defense, as Jayson Tatum’s probing drew help and he was able to kick out to open shooters. After what felt like a disastrous quarter, Boston found themselves only trailing by four points; not bad all things considered.
The second quarter started out looking like more of the same. Ime Udoka chose to roll with a lineup featuring Daniel Theis and Payton Pritchard, two potential liabilities on the defensive end, and the Warriors were exploiting those matchups. After Klay Thompson stepped into a wide open three to put the Warriors up by 10, Boston called timeout and refocused. They came out and attacked mismatches, targeting Curry and Jordan Poole specifically, and ripped off an immediate 10-0 run to tie the game. The run was fueled largely by Jaylen Brown being aggressive, creating shots for himself in the midrange and getting to the basket, and Jayson Tatum playmaking and finding his teammates for open shots. The Celtics locked up defensively over the final half of the second quarter, and appeared to have finally settled into the NBA finals, playing their game, making Golden State work for everything, and creating good looks on offense. After a mostly uninspiring half, the Celtics had to be pretty happy to find themselves up 56-54 going into the locker room.
Throughout the Warriors dynasty, the third quarter has proven time and again to be when they take things to another level. That was on full display on Thursday night as Golden State came out of the locker room looking like a new team. They raised their speed and intensity, playing with a new sense of urgency and the Celtics simply weren’t ready for it. Boston was a step slow in their rotations, continued to play a lot of drop coverage, inviting the Warriors to take open shots, and despite playing with more size, the Celtics got dominated on the offensive glass, yielding way too many second (and third) chance opportunities for the Warriors. The Warriors stretched the lead out to as much as 15 a couple times, and were finding soul-crushing threes from the likes of Otto Porter Jr. and Andre Iguodala. It felt like the game was slipping out of reach on several occasions, but Boston was able to hit a few shots to steady things just a bit. Derrick White and Al Horford both hit big threes in response to Golden State threes that felt like plugging holes to just barely keep the floodgates from opening. In retrospect, those proved to be massive moments, as they kept the Warriors from truly blowing things open and allowed Boston to stay within striking distance - barely. After two big free throws by Derrick White in the final seconds, the Celtics were able to lick their wounds and head into the fourth quarter trailing by 12, 92-80.
Then came the fourth quarter. The Celtics turned things up out of nowhere and completely took over the game. First it was Jaylen Brown. On a night where Tatum’s shooting was completely off, their second star, Brown, stepped up and took over the game when his team needed it most. He started off with an 18 footer off the dribble, then Brown buried a three to cut the lead to 7. After a Warriors turnover, Jaylen drove into the lane and set up Robert Williams for an easy alley-oop, forcing a Golden State timeout. On the next possession, Jaylen came up with a steal and hit the perfect pass up the floor to Pritchard for a layup to cut the lead to just 3. Iguodala made a dunk, and Klay hit a three, but Jaylen answered both scores with a three and a driving layup of his own. He started the quarter with 10 points and 3 assists, scoring or setting up the Celtics first 17 points of the quarter and getting them right back in the game. From there, Brown’s teammates picked up the slack and rose to his level to help bring the game home.
Steph Curry hit a short floater to push the Warriors lead up to 103-100, and stem the tide a bit. But on the other end, Derrick White buried a massive three with a hand in his face to tie things at 103 and the Celtics never looked back. That three kicked off a 17-0 Boston run that was part of a 22-2 run, giving Boston the lead and putting them up double digits for good. Al Horford was huge in this one, he buried back to back threes to give Boston the lead and put them up six, then hit a deep two off the catch, extending the lead to eight. Marcus Smart got a nice rest in the fourth quarter, as White and Pritchard were playing great, but Smart came in fresh for the final three minutes and immediately buried two huge threes to put the Celts up 14. Horford made a layup and 1 on the next possession to put the Celts up 15 and cap off a ridiculous 40-13 fourth quarter run, putting the final nail in the coffin and finishing an improbable game one win on the road.
Jayson Tatum struggled mightily with his shooting in his first career NBA finals game, as he simply could never get it going and finished a paltry 3/17 from the floor with just 12 points. Despite the frigid shooting, Tatum played a masterful two way game and was instrumental in the victory. He had one of the best playmaking games of his career, finishing with 13 assists - an NBA record for a finals debut - and constantly making the right read and the right play. He set up nine three pointers for his teammates, and made several passes that got the defense in rotation and led to easy buckets that won’t show up in his stat line. Tatum was able to draw help, and instead of forcing it, made good decisions that led to successful offensive trips. Watching his development and seeing how much he is able to impact the game without scoring is an amazing testament to his growth and overall superstardom. To do it in the NBA finals against this Warriors team is extremely impressive. Credit to Tatum, and also to Ime Udoka for empowering his superstar to play the right way and do whatever it takes to pull out a win. Tatum likely (and hopefully) won’t shoot this poorly again, so for the Celtics to pull out this road victory on an “off night” for their best player should have the Warriors feeling slightly demoralized.
Part of Tatum’s great playmaking game was his confidence in his teammates and they rewarded his faith in them big time. As a team the Celtcis shot 51% from the field and 21/41 from three point land. The veteran Horford was incredible in his long awaited finals debut, finishing with 26 and 6 on 9/12 shooting and 6/8 from three. Brown was the leader of the comeback, with 24, 7, and 5 on 10/23 shooting and saved his best for the fourth quarter. Boston also got a huge performance from Derrick White off the bench, supplying his typically great defense, ball movement, and rim pressure, but also looking like a marksman shooting the ball. White added 21 big points on 6/11 shooting and hit 5/8 from downtown. Smart was also very efficient and productive, compiling 18 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists on 7/11 shooting and 4/7 from three. To see the Celtics win with all of these guys stepping up and scoring on a night when Tatum didn’t have it going speaks volumes about this team and their ability to adapt to any situation. They don’t win this game without the contributions from their role players, who had the confidence to come in and help take over a finals game against the current league’s most storied team.
The real key to the Celtics comeback and something to watch going forward in this series was the amount of success they had on both ends playing small. Robert Williams looked much better than he did in game seven of the Miami series, and he made some of his typical explosive dunks and blocks. But the Celtics really took off when they played with only one big man on the floor. They went to that lineup at the end of the second quarter and it opened things up, but in the final quarter is when it really looked like Boston had found something. The Celtics started the quarter with Pritchard, White, Brown, Tatum, and Williams III, eventually swapping in Horford for Williams, then later Smart for Pritchard. But regardless of personnel, it was clear that spreading out the floor opened things up for the Boston offense. Especially when Horford came in, the lane was wide open with shooters all over the perimeter. Brown and Tatum were able to consistently target matchups, get into the lane and either finish with little resistance, or kick out to open shooters when Golden State helped to cut off driving lanes. The Warriors had no true rim protectors in the game, and it was hard to help because everyone on the Celtics was hitting threes. Boston was creating good looks every single time down the floor, hence the 40 point outburst in the final frame. Defensively, this worked wonders as well, as Boston was able to switch just about every single action the Warriors ran, helping enough on the likes of Curry/Klay/Poole to make sure those guys weren’t coming open and daring the “non-shooters” to make plays. Pritchard deserves a ton of credit for his efforts on the defensive end, as he was more than up to the challenge down the stretch, allowing him to stay on the floor and play a huge role in the fourth quarter comeback.
Golden State tried to match Boston’s small lineup, but the problem for them is they don’t have five good two-way players to really match up. Poole, Thompson, and Curry proved to be liabilities on the defensive end, and were unable to stay with the Celtics playmakers without help. Boston was smartly targeting those guys and attacking repeatedly. Meanwhile if the Warriors want to opt for more defense, the Celtics are more than happy to leave guys like Iguodala, Porter, and Looney (and even Draymond Green to an extent) wide open and live with the results. Porter was 4/5 on threes, but Boston will live with him taking shots. Boston dared Green to shoot and score and he was unable to do so, finishing with just 4 points on 2/12 shooting and 0/4 from three. Poole had only 9 points on 2/7 shooting, and Thompson had only 15 on 6/14. Even after his huge first quarter, Curry only finished with 34 points on 12/25 from the floor. Boston focused on the Golden State shooters, and were able to limit their open looks. They are going to try to make the complementary scorers for the Warriors beat them, and in game one they were not up to the task.
So Boston drew first blood, and on the road no less. Now we’ve got ourselves a series. The Warriors need to make adjustments, and the Celtics need to keep doing what worked. We know this championship group from Golden State isn’t phased by one loss, even at home in devastating fashion. They’ll bounce back, but the Celtics need to keep up their intensity and urgency. After going to war with the likes of Milwaukee and Miami for seven games each, it must feel nice to play a more finesse team in Golden State, that doesn’t bludgeon you with size and physicality. But as Boston learned in the first and third quarters, that doesn’t mean they can let up with their own aggression and physicality, or the Warriors will make them pay in other ways. But Boston stole one on the road (again), doing what they needed to do and getting out to a big 1-0 lead in the series, setting up a pseudo must-win game two for Golden State at home on Sunday night. The fans will be ready, the Warriors will be ready, can the Celtics match that? They can’t afford to take their foot off the gas just because they stole game one on the road. If anything, they need to be even hungrier. Three more wins and the Boston Celtics will be NBA champions. Play every game like the season is on the line and finish the job.
Ben Handler