Celtics

Steph Curry produced a 43-point masterpiece Friday to will the Golden State Warriors to a 107-97 Game 4 victory over the Boston Celtics and level the series ...

"It's just special to watch what he does," Thompson added. "I mean, this was nearly a must-win game," Thompson told reporters. But it wasn't just his remarkable efficiency in front of a raucous Boston crowd that made this performance special.

The NBA Finals return to Chase Center for a pivotal Game 5 matchup between the Warriors and Celtics.

Marcus Smart, Derrick White and Al Horford also have had their moments offensively for the Celtics in the Finals, who as a team are shooting 49 percent in their wins and 39 percent in their losses. He’s averaging 34.3 points while shooting over 49 percent (both overall and on 3-pointers), and he’s made no fewer than five threes in any game in these Finals. Should he keep up at this pace, this will be Curry’s highest scoring performance in his NBA Finals career, and the third highest scoring postseason series overall. He’s averaging 3.0 blocks per game and has the second best average plus-minus rating (+5.0) among players who play at least 15 minutes a game in this series, trailing only Looney. The Celtics have been the best road team during this postseason, and they’ll need that to ring true at least one more time to keep their Championship hopes alive. AST: Tatum (6.2) Wiggins has been dealt the tough task of defending Boston’s All-NBA star Jayson Tatum. And just as he did against Luka Doncic in the Western Conference Finals, Wiggins is making Tatum work for everything he gets in The Finals. Tatum is averaging 22.3 points while shooting 34.1 percent from the field, down from the 27.0 points on 44.6 percent shooting he had through the first three rounds of the postseason. In fact, the Warriors have outscored the Celtics by a single point (422-421) through the first four games. Curry made seven threes in the game and Andrew Wiggins had 17 points and a career-high 16 rebounds in the win, which tied the series up at 2-2. AST: Green (6.2) Stephen Curry had 43 points and the Warriors ended a tightly contested game with a 17-3 run to win Game 4, 107-97, in Boston on Friday night. The Warriors have won the third quarter in each of the first four games of the series and are a cumulative plus-49 in that period for the series, but Boston rode dominant fourth quarters to each of their wins in Games 1 and 3. AST: 27.2 (1st) The Dubs have gone 10-1 at home this postseason, and with three games at most left in the series, the Warriors can and will use any edge they can with each team two wins away from an NBA Championship. If Monday’s Game 5 plays out anything like the first four games, it will be decided in the second half, as the team who has won the second half has won each of the first four games in the series.

With a few irrelevant seconds remaining on the clock and all matters in Game 4 of the NBA Finals at TD Garden Friday night settled convincingly in the ...

The Celtics could have had the Warriors on the ropes. They did beat Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks in Milwaukee in Game 6 and dethroned the champs in Game 7 in Boston. They did take Game 7 from the Heat in Miami. They win Game 1 of the Finals in San Francisco, but crumble in Game 2 when there’s a golden opportunity to take two straight on the road. Instead, they struggled individually and as a unit, and they were in command of nothing when the game was right there for the taking. Messing with the Warriors is a dangerous game. They lose Game 5 at home to the Bucks in the second round to fall behind, 3-2. They lose Game 6 at home to the Heat, assuring that the Eastern Conference finals would be decided on Miami’s court. They could have gone up 3-1 in the series, leaving them with three shots to close out the proud, recent three-time champion Warriors and claim their first NBA championship since 2008. By my accounting, one Celtics played what one would call “well” Friday night, and it was the Celtic who had the most legitimate reasons not to play well. It also happened to be one of the Celtics’ least aggravating decisions with the basketball late in their 107-97 loss to the Warriors, which evened this series at two games apiece and proved once again that the Celtics treat prosperity like an ill-fitting Christmas gift, something to be returned almost as soon as it is received. The Celtics could have had this. A power-dribble of frustration for the final scene?

Every game of the NBA Finals is live on Sky Sports: Watch Celtics @ Warriors – Game 5, live on Sky Sports Arena & Main Event, on Monday night from 1.45am ...

"But it's the Finals. The art of competition, they came here feeling like they had to win. I think that's kind of the beauty of it, that it's not going to be easy. "I know I'm impacting the game in other ways, but I've got to be more efficient, shoot the ball better, finish at the rim better." "Whether it was rushed shots in traffic or .... standing around and looking at each other a little bit there." "We had plenty of opportunities, obviously. "We just didn't execute late down the stretch," said Smart, who scored 18 points.

Here are 10 stats to know following Game 4 of the NBA Finals between the Celtics and Warriors. Read more on Boston.com.

The Warriors shot 7-of-24 in the first half and 8-of-19 (42 percent) in the second half. Boston has been up, down, even, and dealt with just about every situation in the playoffs, and the Celtics still haven’t lost back-to-back games. Wiggins finished with 17 points and a game-high 16 rebounds — setting his career high on the boards at a perfect moment. The Celtics totaled just three points the rest of the way, as the Warriors outscored them 17-3 to close the game. Curry’s brilliance was the main reason for the turnaround after Boston built a 54-49 halftime lead, but the Celtics didn’t do themselves any favors either. Boston shot 8-of-14 (57 percent) from distance in the first half and 7-of-24 (29 percent) in the second half.

With the Warriors up 1 to start the final frame of Game 4, the Celtics were seemingly their own worst enemy again, even more so than an electric Steph Curry.

It’s who we are and who we’re going to continue to be,” Marcus Smart said. “Would we have liked to have won today and be up 3-1? This team, we’ve shown that when our backs are against the wall, we have to come out and respond. “We feel like we’ve kinda put it together, and now, our backs are against the wall. It felt like we didn’t have our best possessions and kinda let them back in the game whether it was turnovers or poor offense,” Ime Udoka said after the game. Through twenty-two games of the postseason, it seems like the Celtics have been the Celtics’ biggest opponent.

Boston's Jayson Tatum disappeared in crunch time during the NBA Finals, contributing to paralyzing fourth-quarter scoring drought as the Celtics squandered ...

“It’s kind of on me to do that more often than not just to help my team in the best way that I can,” he said. I think just quick decisions, don’t turn down any open looks, any daylight that I have, just continue to try to make the right pass.” We just got to move,” he said. In their two losses those numbers drop to 22 points per game and 34% from the field. “I just got to be better,” Tatum said after Golden State’s 107-97 win in Game 4 Friday night to tie the series. “I know I can be better, so it’s not like I, myself or my team is asking me to do something I’m not capable of.

Udoka and Boston Celtics, missed the chance to take a 3-1 lead over the Golden State Warriors in the NBA finals after losing 107-75 in game.

The information contained in Completesports.com may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the prior written authority of Completesports.com. The information contained in Completesports.com may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the prior written authority of Completesports.com.Copyright © 2021 Completesports.com All rights reserved. Former Nigeria international Ime Udoka’s Boston Celtics, missed the chance to take a 3-1 lead over the Golden State Warriors in the NBA finals after losing 107-75 in game four on Friday night.

After a 43-point masterpiece by Steph Curry that evened the NBA Finals at two games apiece, we're getting exactly the barnburner of a finals we hoped for.

Watch as Curry drives down the lane and kicks to a wide-open Gary Payton II in the corner, whom the Celtics correctly disregard. And then Curry just keeps running to the corner and gets a handoff back from Payton, who screens Curry’s man so Steph can knock down a triple. And, to close it out, the other thing we can say at this point, is Steph Curry should be the NBA Finals MVP win or lose. Even his paltry total of four assists didn’t tell the story, not when his passes to the likes of Green, Porter and Kevon Looney mostly ended up in resets. Green finished with just two points and also suffered the rare humiliation of a Mom burn because of his play. On a team where nobody else can create off the dribble, he managed to be an offense unto himself, going far more heliocentric in these first four games than we’re used to seeing. And of course, the bad passes. Yes, it felt like Boston had control, and that only the Celtics’ tendency to beat themselves with live-ball turnovers and heavy doses of Steph Curry’s shooting ridiculousness could keep the Warriors afloat. It’s not like it’s a big advantage the other way: Through four games, the Warriors have one more offensive rebound and one fewer turnover. Even in a comfortable first-round “gentleman’s sweep” over Denver, the Warriors had a five-possession deficit. Boston’s lead was always tenuous, but the feeling in the TD Garden was that the Celtics had the upper hand. To the extent it was close, it seemed to be close more because of the Celtics’ mistakes.

Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) goes up for a shot against Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson (11) during Game 4 of basketball's NBA Finals, ...

“It’s kind of on me to do that more often than not just to help my team in the best way that I can,” he said. I think just quick decisions, don’t turn down any open looks, any daylight that I have, just continue to try to make the right pass.” We just got to move,” he said. In their two losses those numbers drop to 22 points per game and 34% from the field. “I just got to be better,” Tatum said after Golden State’s 107-97 win in Game 4 Friday night to tie the series. “I know I can be better, so it’s not like I, myself or my team is asking me to do something I’m not capable of.

Boston should have won Game 4, but an exasperating performance ceded home-court advantage back to Golden State.

The Celtics could have had the Warriors on the ropes. They did beat Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks in Milwaukee in Game 6 and dethroned the champs in Game 7 in Boston. They did take Game 7 from the Heat in Miami. They win Game 1 of the Finals in San Francisco, but crumble in Game 2 when there’s a golden opportunity to take two straight on the road. Instead, they struggled individually and as a unit, and they were in command of nothing when the game was right there for the taking. Messing with the Warriors is a dangerous game. They lose Game 5 at home to the Bucks in the second round to fall behind, 3-2. They lose Game 6 at home to the Heat, assuring that the Eastern Conference finals would be decided on Miami’s court. They could have gone up, 3-1, in the series, leaving them with three shots to close out the proud, recent three-time champion Warriors and claim their first NBA championship since 2008. By my accounting, one Celtic played what one would call “well” Friday night, and it was the Celtic who had the most legitimate reasons not to play well. It also happened to be one of the Celtics’ least aggravating decisions with the basketball late in their 107-97 loss to the Warriors, which evened this series at two games apiece and proved once again that the Celtics treat prosperity like an ill-fitting Christmas gift, something to be returned almost as soon as it is received. The Celtics could have had this. A power-dribble of frustration for the final scene?

The reality is the Celtics had plenty of issues in Game 4 of the 2022 NBA Finals, but the biggest issue Boston had was the Golden State Warriors. Winning a ...

They did in Game 6 in Milwaukee and Game 7 in Boston in the second round. The Celtics are the most resilient team of recent memory. And they punted the second game of that set for rest/health purposes. No matter what happens in Game 5, the Boston Celtics aren’t done. There’s another game in Boston no matter what. The key, not matter Williams’ status, is all five Celtics have to hit a body and then hit the boards. Keep pushing the ball. Ball and player movement have to be better for the full 48. For all of Stephen Curry’s terrifying brilliance, those are the numbers that cost the Celtics the game. And then there was the fourth quarter. So…does it suck that Boston missed a chance to go up 3-1? Now, it’s not going to be easy.

Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum struggled in the Celtics' Game 4 NBA Finals loss, shooting just 8-23 from the floor as Golden State tied the series at ...

That it's not going to be easy, and it shouldn’t be. "We don’t do this s*** on purpose," Tatum said following the loss. "So, that's the ongoing theme, so to speak. I know I’m impacting the games in other ways, but I got to be more efficient. I got to be better. For Tatum, the remaining three quarters were a different story.

Jayson Tatum dribbled right but ran into a Warriors double team. After retreating into a pick-and-roll, Tatum found himself isolated against Curry with the shot ...

“We just get ready for the next game. It left the Warriors with every reason to believe. Though the Celtics defended him well, Curry used their diverted attention to relocate for his seventh 3-pointer of the game: We just got to do a better job executing down the stretch. We have to do a better job.” “We just have to stay organized,” Brown said. “But I got to be more efficient, shoot the ball better, finish at the rim better. It’s the burden of stardom, especially this deep in the playoffs. When the Celtics did eventually pass half court, Tatum waited for his teammates to get in place to run a set. “I don’t feel like we executed as well as we did the previous game. “I think we just got way too stagnant late in the fourth from everybody.” The Celtics did it again.