by The Golden State Warriors evened up the NBA Finals tonight at one game a piece with a commanding 107-88 win over Boston at home. Despite getting 28 points in a nice bounce back performance from Jayson Tatum, the Celtics simply couldn’t hang with the Warriors who outscored Boston 35-14 in the third quarter to pull away with the win after only being up 52-50 at halftime.
The Celtics were held to just 38 the entire second half. This was after a game one that saw them score 40 in the fourth quarter to stun the Warriors. They had no such luck as Golden State played four complete quarters to earn the split before game three takes place Wednesday night in Boston.
Th Warriors were paced by Stephen Curry who scored 29 points in another stellar finals effort from the future Hall of Famer. Jordan Poole chipped in with 17 off the bench which came in handy as Klay Thompson was once again just a bit off. Thompson finished with only 11 and has had a mediocre start to the Finals thus far.
Al Hortford and Marcus Smart combined for 50 in the game one victory, but were far from that tonight. Hortford was completely shut down and held to just 2 points while Smart was also held to just 2 points. It is clear that if the Celtics are going to have any chance at hanging with the Warriors, they are going to need atleast 3 players to put up 20 plus points each. Tonight, they were far from that as their second leading scorer was Jaylen Brown with 17.
It was kind of a strange night at times, as no one had a double double or even came close to one. Draymond Green was held to just 5 rebounds while Andrew Wiggins was held to just 11 points in 30 minutes of action. It wasn’t the greatest game for the Warriors, but it was plenty enough to earn the win.
As for Boston, they have to be happy with getting the split on the road in a hostile environment. Game three will more than likely tell the story of this series. Are the true Celtics the team we saw in game one score 120 in a big victory in Game One, or the team tonight they let up 107 and couldn’t contain Steph?
