NBA Finals: Celtics Stun Warriors In Game One
The Boston Celtics staged a brilliant fourth quarter comeback to stun the Golden State Warriors, claiming a 120-108 victory against the home team in Game One of the NBA Finals in San Francisco, USA.
In his Finals debut, veteran forward Al Horford was sensational for the Celtics, scoring a team high 26 points including 4-for-4 shooting in the final frame.
The Celtics squad made a combined 21 three-pointers and saw five players finishing in double digits behind a balanced attack that made up for an off-night from forward Jayson Tatum.
“That’s kind of who we’ve been all year: tough, grinders, a resilient group,” Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka said after the match.
The Celtics looked all but dead when the Warriors turned a two-point halftime deficit into a 92-80 lead entering the fourth quarter.
But the visitors roared back, outscoring the Warriors 40-16 in the final frame behind nine three pointers to steal home court advantage, and improve to 8-2 on the road this postseason. It marked the Warriors’ first home loss of this year’s playoffs.
Warriors guard Stephen Curry opened the game in great form, scoring 21 points in the first quarter to send the home fans into a frenzy. However, the Celtics’ defence limited Curry to just 13 points for the rest of the game.
Perhaps the best news for the Celtics is that they managed to win despite Tatum scoring 12 points on 3-of-17 shooting.
“We don’t expect JT to have a tough shooting night like that again,” Udoka said.
“I don’t know if you attribute it to jitters, some of the defence they were throwing at him…but it shows what we are, which is a team.”
Warriors coach Steve Kerr said the Warriors will need to be better at closing out games if they are going to prevent Boston from winning an NBA record 18th championship.
“You give up 40 in the fourth and the other team makes 21 threes, it’s going to be hard to win,” Kerr said.
“They came in and played a hell of a fourth quarter and it’s just as simple as that.”
Game Two in the best-of-seven series will take place on Sunday in San Francisco.
Chidi Nwoke/Reuters/NBA.
