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The game was already in good hands when it happened, but injury added to the insult. Stephen Curry, who had recently picked up a foot injury, tried to defend Marcus Smart on a drive with just over two minutes left. Smart, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound fusion of brawn, guts and determination, sent Curry a compact elbow down center, causing the two-time MVP to limp painfully onto the bench as he checked out for the final time .
Resignation? Maybe not. But certainly agree … at least for one night.
The Boston Celtics took a 2-1 lead in Wednesday’s NBA Finals with a 116-100 win in Game 3 that the Golden State Warriors won’t soon forget. They’ll have plenty of time to think about it as they soak in the ice tub and receive body massages, trying to prevent bruising and soreness from the punishment the Celtics have been relentlessly inflicting throughout the evening.
“Game 2, they brought us the heat. For us that left a bad taste in our mouth because we’re hanging our hat, the effort is defensive and a physical team. It definitely woke us up a bit, ” Smart said after the Game 3 win. “We just wanted to get out and if we wanted to get out here and play, the last thing we wanted to do when we left this place was not to say that we weren’t physically enough.”
Boston executed on its clear intent to get on the rim early and often, outclassing the Warriors 52-26 in the game color. The Celtics also showed their strength on the offensive glass, beating the Warriors 15-6, resulting in a 22-11 advantage in second chance points.
A signature Curry heater kept things tight in the third quarter, but the Celtics responded quickly to put things out of reach in the fourth. More than anything, the Celtics simply beat the Warriors. One wonders how Golden State, whose key players are in their 30s, will fare as the series continues against a mostly young, athletic Celtics team that Smart said prides itself on its physicality.
Jayson Tatum didn’t have the best night of shooting Wednesday, but when Curry got into trouble he used his size and power advantage to get to the basket with little to no resistance.
Curry wasn’t the only one to take the brunt of the Celtics’ muscle power. Al Horford almost sent Otto Porter Jr. into the stands with that shoulder jab in the first quarter.
In one of the biggest momentum plays of the game, Jaylen Brown – who was brilliant offensively – pulled off a massive defensive stop on Klay Thompson. First, Brown hit Thompson at the spot and propelled him, forcing him to change direction and nearly knocking the ball away in the process. Then Brown recovered and used his length to cut off the pass to the corner. Eventually, Brown stayed connected as he followed Thompson down the lane cut, then used his athleticism and timing to erase the shot on the edge. Really remarkable stuff.
When it comes to offensive rebounding, teams can sometimes get inflated numbers here and there due to long 3-pointer thrashing or random bounces. But the Celtics earned the majority of their offensive rebounds through determination and strength. Watch here as Horford takes his position and then outpaces THREE surrounding warriors to secure the ricochet. He misses the put-back, but it’s a nod to the kind of effort and physicality the Celtics played with all night.
“I thought the offensive rebounds were just killer. … That was really the difference in the game,” said Warriors coach Kerr. “We made several stops, especially in the second half where we had chances to take the lead or make a small push and they got offensive boards. That was hard.”
Overall, it seemed like the Warriors were getting more downed in Game 3. Nothing came easy, and the Celtics’ size advantage has never been more prevalent. Robert Williams III had four blocks and three steals – and it seemed like a whole lot more. His length and jumping ability turned even the most wary of swimmers into fuel for his riotous rejections.
“We talked about just being aware of where he is because especially depending on who he’s guarding, he can kind of come out of nowhere,” Curry said of Williams after Game 3. “There’s a game early in the fourth, i got from grant williams and thought i had daylight to get a shot and you underestimate how athletic [Robert Williams III] was and how much he could disrupt that shot.
In case you’re wondering which piece of curry is referring to, here it is. Williams can’t even get into the frame until the last second, and suddenly the ball is headed for the stands with the speed of a Shohei Ohtani fastball.
We knew the Warriors were at a size, length, and athletic disadvantage going into the series, but the impact was really evident in Game 3. Boston found success small to end their Game 1 win and then went for big, bloody lineups further down the stretch on Wednesday. The Warriors’ only true answer for greatness is Kevon Looney, who played just 17 minutes in Game 3 after averaging 23 minutes in the first two games.
When the Warriors go big, they sacrifice shooting and distance on the offensive end. As they grow small, they run the risk of what happened Wednesday: being buried on the glass and dominated in the lacquer. It’s a conundrum, and one that Kerr and his staff will have to examine carefully as the series progresses.
“This is the game for us. We have to consider what’s happening on the ground, what we need, do we need ground clearance, do we need a better rebound,” Kerr said after the loss. “So we couldn’t find that two-way combination, other than that stretch in the third when Steph got really hot. Couldn’t find the right combination to find that balance.”
