Celtics get embarrassed at home by the Warriors, 104-88
The Boston Celtics got beaten badly by the Golden State Warriors tonight, 104-88. The Celts played well in the first half but that same team didn't come out in the second half as they game escalated and got out of hand VERY QUICKLY in the 3rd quarter.
The first half was a close affair as the Celts and Warriors battled it out. Kevin Durant had his shot going early and often as he scored 15 points in the half, many of his buckets over Avery Bradley. Brad Stevens put Marcus Smart and Bradley on Durant defensively and the superstar took advantage using his size. Smart and Bradley also switched guarding Curry and limited him to 3-10 shooting from the field and 0-4 from beyond the arc. Klay Thompson had his shot falling as well netting 17 points in the half. As a team the Warriors shot 27.3% from the three point line in the half, much of that due to the Celts suffocating Curry and the rest of the team on defense.
For the C's Isaiah Thomas led the team in scoring in the first half with 12 points. Gerald Green got some extensive time off the bench in the 2nd quarter and hit a couple three's. Without Jae Crowder, the C's had to put in Green to hopefully get his scoring going and length of defense to cover Durant. Each team had 7 turnovers in the first half as they each struggled with protecting the ball.
Unfortunately for the Celts, the same team that went into the locker room didn't come back out for the second half. From the start the Warriors got on fire from three and two Draymond Green three's and a Thompson three helped the Warriors push their lead to 17, and it was 68-51 just minutes after the 3rd quarter started. Out of the timeout, Boston continued to turn the ball over and the Warriors pushed their run to 24-3 before the C's ended their run. Brad Stevens took the starters out and the second unit played much of the second half of the 3rd quarter as the game had been blown wide open. The Celtics turned the ball over 5 times in the quarter and missed pretty much everything they took. David West hit a shot at the buzzer to end the quarter as the Warriors outscored the men in green, 31-9.
In the 4th quarter, Boston put most of their bench out on the floor as the game was out of hand. Avery Bradley, Jaylen Brown, and Terry Rozier all got hot and at one point the Celts cut the lead down to 14 with 3 minutes left in the game, but it was too little too late as it was too big of a hole to dig out of. They even managed to cut the lead down to 11 with just over a minute left. The fourth proved once again that the team never quits even when the game is out of hand.
For the home team, Isaiah Thomas had 18 points in 27 minutes on the floor. Avery Bradley had 17 points and 10 rebounds. Kelly Olynyk didn't register a single point in 17 minutes. Terry Rozier played well off the bench in garbage time with 11 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists. Jaylen Brown also had a nice fourth quarter finishing with 11 points. Marcus Smart left the game in the third quarter with an ankle contusion and didn't return. For the Warriors, Kevin Durant had 23 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals in a terrific performance. Klay Thompson led the team in scoring with 28 points. Stephen Curry was held in check for the most part as he finished with 16 points while shooting only 7-20 from the field and 2-10 from three. Draymond Green had another all around great game with 11 points, 8 assists and 8 rebounds.
The Celtics record now stands at 6-6 as they travel to Detroit to take on the Pistons tomorrow night. Tip-off is at 7:00pm ET.
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