CALIFORNIA – Boston Celtics went on a huge turnaround in the fourth quarter as they dismantled the Golden State Warriors, 120-108, in Game 1 of the 2021-2022 NBA Finals on Thursday night (Friday in the Philippines) at the Chase Center in San Francisco.
Down by as much as 15 points and by 12 to enter the fourth quarter, the Celtics got five straight points from Jaylen Brown and back-to-back inside hits from Robert Williams and Payton Pritchard to trim the deficit to 89-92.
The Warriors widened the lead to 99-94 but the Celtics responded with an inside hit from Brown, a triple from Pritchard and back-to-back triples from Derrick White to tie the score at 103-all.
Al Horford then took over the offense for Boston with consecutive triples and a two-pointer for an 111-103 edge. Consecutive trey by Marcus Smart and a three-point play by Horford gave the Celtics a 120-105 edge.
Horford finished the game with 26 points, including six triples, while Brown and White 24 and 21 points, respectively, as the Celtics took a 1-0 edge in the best-of-seven series.
“It was the way we were moving the ball. The guys just kept finding me open for the shot,” said Horford. “We were just setting them up and knocking them down.”
Smart contributed 18 markers, five rebounds and four assists, while Jayson Tatum struggled with his offense to end up with 12 markers but had 13 assists for the Celtics.
“This (Game 1 win) is a confidence builder because we didn’t play our best at all,” said Celtics head coach Ime Udoka. “(In the fourth), we got up into guys much better. We stayed tight to them. Seemed like we kind of wore them down a little bit.”
“We look at ourselves as a unit. A complete team. We pride ourselves on being a team that plays together on offense and defense,” added the first-year head coach.
Stephen Curry led the Warriors with 34 points, 21 coming in the first quarter, while Andre Wiggins, Klay Thompson and Otto Porter Jr. added 20, 15 and 13 markers, respectively.
BOX SCORE:
BOSTON 120 — Horford 26, Brown 24, White 21, Smart 18, Tatum 12, R. Williams 8, Pritchard 8, Theis 3, G. Williams 0, Stauskas 0, Kornet 0, Morgan 0, Fitts 0, Hauser 0.
GOLDEN STATE 108 — Curry 34, Wiggins 20, Thompson 15, Porter 12, Poole 9, Iguodala 7, Green 4, Looney 4, Bjelica 3, Lee 0, Toscano-Anderson 0, Kuminga 0, Moody 0.
Quarterscores: 28-32, 56-54, 80-92, 120-108./PN
