After Steph Curry and the Warriors came out firing in the first quarter of Game 1 on Thursday night, the Boston Celtics had to make adjustments just to stay within striking distance.
Their strategy worked. By the end of the fourth quarter, Boston had surged back to take the first game of the NBA Finals from Golden State by a score of 120-108 in front of a stunned Chase Center crowd.
Celtics center Al Horford was a key factor in Boston taking a one-game-to-none lead after finishing his Finals debut with a team-high 26 points and six rebounds. After the game, Horford explained to reporters how the Celtics were able to keep the Warriors off the offensive glass during Boston’s astonishing 40-14 run in the game’s final 12 minutes.
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The Celtics went small in the fourth quarter, switching and pre-switching on defense.
“Yeah, I think we were able to do a better job with that, holding them off [from offensive rebounds],” Horford said after the game. “And we have to be better for next game, making sure that we’re not giving so many second-chance points and putting ourselves in bad positions.
“I feel like in the fourth … the switching did help. That was good for us.”
Just two of the Warriors’ 12 total offensive rebounds came in the fourth quarter, one of which was during garbage time with 20 seconds left.
Golden State Warriors
Still, defending a Warriors offense with weapons like Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole, though he didn’t have his best playoff performance in Game 1, was an entirely new order for Boston, Horford added.
“It’s a huge challenge,” he said. “It’s something that we haven’t seen, those types of guys. For us it’s just almost -- our defense is versatile; we have a lot of guys that can defend different ways. It’s been a big adjustment and it’s not easy.”
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The Celtics got an up-close look at how big of a problem Curry could potentially be this series when he dropped in six 3-pointers during the first quarter, setting a Finals record. After that, however, he shot just 1-of-6 from behind the arc across the game’s next three quarters.
But Curry still finished with a game-high 34 points, and before the Warriors' offense was stifled in the fourth quarter, they put together an impressive 38-point third.
Horford made it clear that Boston will need to pull out all the defensive stops to win back-to-back games -- especially if Curry sees even more playing time in Game 2 than he did on Thursday.
“Steph came out firing,” Horford said. “We were there. He was making shot after shot. For us, it’s just continuing to find ways to be better on the defensive end.”