Celtics Unpredictable Play Leads to Game 3 Win Over Warriors, Threatening Warriors Dream Season
INDIANAPOLIS — As the Boston Celtics general manager Brad Stevens surveyed the concourse in the bowels of Gainbridge Fieldhouse, following a 102-96 victory over the Golden State Warriors in Game 3 of the NBA Finals, a look of satisfaction spread across his face. This is what the Celtics do. This is what they have been doing all season. They make opponents uncomfortable, and the Warriors, now trailing the best-of-seven championship series 2-1, are as uncomfortable as they have been all season. Stevens' 60-win juggernaut — the one heavily favored in this series; the one we expected to be a seasoned veteran team — is one win away from securing a spot in the NBA Finals. Celtics head coach Ime Udoka found all sorts of ways to describe this victory by his young team as "unpredictable," and he found even more ways to say, "They struggled to keep up with us the majority of the game." "The turnovers were unexpected," Udoka said of the Warriors' 18 giveaways, one shy of a season high. "We usually apply a lot of pressure on defense, but they managed to keep the ball moving." The Warriors played well, mostly because the Celtics did not apply the defensive pressure they usually do. Boston had something to do with that, too, playing at a pace that made Golden State struggle to keep up. It is hard to be physical with someone when you cannot keep up with them. "Just the pace of our offense was faster than their pressure and physicality tonight," said Udoka. "That's just what it came down to. We got the ball ahead of them more easily tonight than they did in the first two games. That led to a lot of the downstream effects of our offense and their defense tonight." Mostly, though, the Warriors were not themselves, especially in the fourth quarter, when the league's MVP, Stephen Curry, a legend, attempted only six shots and failed to register an assist. "It felt like we lost all the 50/50 plays," Curry said of the fourth quarter. "They executed on both ends of the ball. When you give those two things up, no matter what quarter, you're probably going to lose the quarter, especially on the road in a hostile environment as the crowd is behind them." "Their overall tone was better than ours for the majority of the game," added Udoka. "Like I said, I thought we had some really good stretches, but we just made one too many mistakes and had one too many possessions on both ends of the floor where they were more tied to their identity than we were." Another point of evidence: The Warriors, the NBA's best free-throw shooting team, missed six of their 24 attempts. All the coach could say to that: "It was an unexpected night in a lot of ways for us." The question, then: Why was everything about this game so unexpected for Golden State? Why did the real Warriors not stand up? Why, conversely, as Udoka said, were the Celtics "in character in terms of their physicality, their pressure on defense" and "in character in terms of their pace on offense"? It is not like the Warriors did not know what to expect. This was a tied series. A championship is on the line. The Celtics did not defend them any differently, other than attacking pick-and-rolls at a higher point.
