Stars, Studs and Duds: Bradley the C's best performer vs. Warriors

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BOSTON --  The final box score shows that the Boston Celtics were outscored by the Golden State Warriors in three of the four quarters played.
 
WARRIORS 104, CELTICS 88:

But it was the third quarter more than the others that buried the Celtics, who wound up losing, 104-88.
 
Golden State (10-2) opened the third with a 24-3 run and finished outscoring Boston by a decisive 31-9 margin.
 
“That was incredible to start the third quarter off the right way,” said Golden State’s Draymond Green. “The one thing we’ve been talking about is, starting the half off the right way. We made a conscious effort to make sure we’re better at that. Not sure we thought we’d be 24-3 good, but that was amazing.”
 
The deficit reached the 30-point plateau which led to mass substitutions for the Celtics who will return to the floor tonight to take on the Detroit Pistons.
 
“It was bad,” said Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas, who played just 27 minutes. “We gave up.”
 
When asked specifically about what went wrong for the Celtics in the third quarter, Thomas said, “We couldn’t score and they did. What we did well last year with them, even though they went on runs, we held our own and we were able to score right back on them.”
 
He was referring to Boston’s double overtime loss at the Garden and the Celtics’ win at Golden State on April Fool’s Day. But Friday was a different Golden State team with the addition of Kevin Durant.
 
And unfortunately for Boston, they too were a different team at least in the way they played.
 
“Hey, they’re really good, and we all know that,” said Celtics head coach Brad Stevens. “But you can’t have droughts. You just can’t have droughts against them.”
 
Here are the stars, studs and duds from Friday night’s game:
 
STARS
 

Klay Thompson: On the trading block, what? The Warriors quickly came out and denied they have any interest in trading Thompson and we all saw why on Friday. He absolutely torched the Celtics with a game-high 28 points on 12-for-21 shooting to go with five rebounds and three assists.
 
Kevin Durant:
For most of the night, it felt like Durant could score anytime he wanted to. He finished 23 points which came on an efficient 10-for-13 shooting night. He also grabbed 10 rebounds and dished out seven assists.
 
STUDS
 
Avery Bradley: The game seemed all but over going into the fourth, but Bradley stayed on the floor and made it a competitive game. He got a good round of applause when he left the floor with three minutes to play. He tallied a team-leading seventh double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds to go with two assists.
 
DUDS

Stephen Curry: The fact that he struggled to make shots (16 points, 7-for-20 shooting) was just part of the struggles Curry had. He also struggled defensively to keep whoever had the ball, in front of him. Not the kind of game you expect to see from a two-time league MVP. 

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