3 observations: Warriors lose the battle of ugly in Game 3
The Golden State Warriors (1-1) visited the Boston Celtics (1-1) as the NBA Finals shifted to TD Garden for Games 3 and 4. Golden State was looking to steal back homecourt advantage with a victory. Boston was looking to resume its series lead with a victory. The Celtics outscored the Warriors 23-11 in the fourth quarter to take a 2-1 series lead, 116-100.
Stephen Curry led all scorers with 31 points on 12-for-22 shooting (6-for-11 on three-point attempts). Klay Thompson scored 25 points on 7-for-17 shooting (5-for-13).
Jaylen Brown led the Celtics with 27 points on 9-for-16 shooting. Jayson Tatum scored 26 points on 9-for-23 shooting.
Here are 3 observations from the Warriors’ Game 3 loss.
Nothing at the rim
The Warriors found themselves in a quick, steep hole because of Boston’s tenacity on both ends to start the game. Golden State couldn’t get anything easy at the rim, and Boston got whatever it wanted at the basket.
The Celtics were both incredibly imposing and fortunate in their defensive playmaking in the first half. Robert Williams III and Al Horford made some awesome rotations around the rim to reject feeble layups or long-airborne dunks.
But, the Warriors also helped them a bit. Golden State rushed a number of their shots at the rim and lacked spacial awareness. The Warriors felt the Celtics lurking at times, smoking layups as they tried to avoid tight contests or contact. But, there were instances in which the Warriors had favorable angles to the basket, and instead of using pump-fakes to get overly eager Celtics in the air, they tried to beat them to the top. That’s not a game the Warriors — small and largely deficient in vertical pop — are going to win against the Celtics — huge and built upon versatility and athleticism.
Those same physical disparities predictably made things easy for the Celtics on the offensive end. They leveraged their size and athleticism to carve to the basket for easy scores. There’s not a ton Golden State can do about that, other than be flawlessly crisp on its defensive rotations and maybe lean into some Jonathan Kuminga minutes. Just as the Warriors can lean on shooting in a way that the Celtics cannot, the Celtics have an innate advantage in generating high-quality shots at the cup. It is what it is.
In terms of shot quality, it was just as much an imperfect half for the Warriors as it was a perfect half for the Celtics.
Hunt the drop
The Celtics appeared ready to give the game away after building an 18-point lead in the first half. What made it all the more jarring was that the Warriors didn’t do anything particularly impressive. No wheels were re-invented, that’s for sure.
Rather, the Celtics were seemingly married to drop coverage on pick-and-rolls. They granted Curry 1-2 steps of forward space in a moderate drop or played much closer to the rim in a heavy drop out of the ball screen actions. That’s ludicrous for two reasons.
First, it’s the Warriors. Giving Curry a plane of space after peeling off a screen in the middle of the floor is affording him practice shots.
Second, Daniel Theis did not play a minute in the game. The bigs were Horford, Williams III, and Grant Williams all game long. Those guys afford Boston versatility and agility to step out and guard on switches, even if Curry naturally still has an advantage.
It was inexplicable that Boston lived in drop, and Curry just walked into threes throughout the third quarter to power a run that eventually culminated in Golden State taking a brief lead in the closing minutes of the frame.
Coyote Ugly
In the end, the Celtics recovered to restore their lead and secure victory without much drama as the fourth quarter went on. They can credit their principles and physical gifts for that. Boston is simply built to win ugly, capable of covering more ground for loose balls to win the 50-50s, capable of jumping over smaller rebounders to create additional plays off of their own missed shots, capable of throwing traps on defense at any moment to suffocate the air out of the possession.
The Warriors simply aren’t built to win that type of game. It’s not about mental toughness, they’re just small and lacking in intangibles. Thus, they don’t have that identity to resort to when the game shifts away from its poetic beauty. They have to either have put the game away much earlier, or have the hot hands in the guts of the game.
Neither of those things happened in Game 3, and the Celtics were able to turn to their identity when it came to putting the game away.
The Warriors (1-2) will look to steal back homecourt advantage in Game 4 on Friday. Tip-off is 9 PM, Eastern time, in Boston. You can catch the action on ABC.
This post originally appeared on Warriors Wire! Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
