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Steph Curry burns the Celtics as Warriors hold on late: 10 takeaways
Steve Kerr's post-Olympics return to TD Garden saw the Celtics drop their second game of the season.
The Celtics dropped their second game of the season on Wednesday, falling to a rejuvenated Warriors team 118-112.
Here are the takeaways.
1. Steph Curry killed the Celtics down the stretch.
This isn’t exactly groundbreaking analysis, but it’s not just the shooting with Steph Curry.
Of course, it’s partly the shooting — the 3-pointers hurt, and they make his forays into the lane significantly more dangerous.
But as has been the case on every good Warriors team since Curry’s historic run with the franchise began, the attention paid to Curry is nearly as damaging for a defense. For years, that attention would spring Klay Thompson free for 3-pointers. Now, Curry has Buddy Hield to do damage from behind the arc, in addition to all of the slashing and cutting wings at his disposal.
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Curry stung the Celtics as a scorer in the fourth quarter, both behind the 3-point arc and in the paint. When the Celtics shut off his scoring, Curry made a killer pass to Hield in the corner for a 3-pointer with less than a minute remaining, which put the Warriors up by seven and knocked the Celtics onto their heels for the rest of the game.
As good as the Celtics can be (and they remain the team to beat in the NBA), the Warriors still have one of the greatest game-breaking talents in the history of the league.
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“He’s one of the greatest player the game’s ever seen,” Derrick White said. “It takes a whole team to guard him.”
Curry finished with 27 points, seven rebounds, and nine assists to go with 4-for-9 shooting from deep.
2. The Warriors’ defense is real.
Golden State was hyper-aggressive on the defensive end, forcing turnovers and bringing double teams that seemed to give the Celtics fits in the first half – something of a surprise for a team that loves to be double-teamed.
“I think when we executed well, it kind of looked [right],” White said. “But we didn’t execute in the first half and it looked crazy. Just got to be stronger with the ball and make the right read.”
Still, the Warriors have constructed a really good defensive system. Having long, athletic wings like Moses Moody, Jonathan Kuminga, and Andrew Wiggins helps a lot, of course, but Curry is a little underrated as well — he’s not particularly long or freakishly athletic, but he poked away four steals and caused Celtics ball-handlers plenty of issues.
“They’re physical, so they force you to fight for your space,” Joe Mazzulla said. “They have active hands, so I think in the first half, they got a ton of deflections. They were able to get some stuff there, but I thought we did a better job of handling the physicality in the second half and just have to put – again, we talk physicality, it’s just as much about defense as offense.
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“So it took us a little while to get adjusted to that. Once we did, we executed really well, and then it just came down to a couple possessions at the end.”
3. Neemias Queta keeps topping himself.
Neemias Queta got his first career start in the Celtics’ win over the Hawks on Monday. Afterward, Joe Mazzulla praised the hyper-athletic big man and his sky-high ceiling.
On Wednesday, Queta topped himself once again, putting together an excellent two-way performance in 28 minutes with 14 points on 6-for-11 shooting with eight rebounds and two blocks, with some flashes as a versatile switching defender.
“He’s doing a good job just understanding tendencies,” Mazzulla said. “I thought he’s doing a good job executing the coverages that we have. He forced them inside of three a couple times to his right hand.
“He’s just getting better and better at understanding what the scheme is and kind of what the tendencies are and then just the situational basketball of making reads on the defensive end. So he’s definitely growing.”
Queta scored the first basket of the game, slamming down a lob out of a pick-and-roll. The Warriors then spent several minutes trying to pick on him in the pick-and-roll, but Queta proved largely up to the task, even holding his own against Curry at one point. He also annihilated a layup attempt by Andrew Wiggins.
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In the second half, Queta picked up where he left off, throwing down multiple huge slams, swatting Curry at the rim and helping the Celtics offensively with great screening and activity.
The Celtics haven’t had a vertical threat like Queta since Robert Williams was dealt in the Jrue Holiday deal. As Queta gets increasingly comfortable on both ends (and increasingly consistent), the Celtics have a dangerous new addition to their already well-stocked arsenal.
4. Steve Kerr got booed (but the drama was low).
The early season showdown between the Warriors and Celtics was billed as Steve Kerr vs. Jayson Tatum after Kerr gave Tatum a pair of DNP-CDs during Team USA’s gold medal run.
And, as expected, Kerr was booed loudly when PA announcer Eddie Paladino deftly paused to give fans an opportunity to do so as the starting lineups were announced.
Very early in Wednesday’s game, however, it became clear that the contest would not be an opportunity for revenge necessarily, but an intense battle between two really good teams. The Warriors stifled the Celtics in the first half, and a little flurry before halftime pushed their lead to 11. The Celtics started to figure out how to break through the Warriors’ hyper-aggressive defense in the third quarter and they closed the gap. There was little time for Celtics fans to worry about Kerr as they groaned about Curry’s shooting and exploded over the heroics of Tatum, White, and Queta.
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Which, of course, is probably how it should be.
“I don’t think anybody actually cared enough about me to boo me,” Kerr said before the game when asked about previous times he had been booed. “But we’ll see how it goes tonight.”
5. Tatum’s take on the situation.
Tatum was profoundly (and profanely) unconcerned by the situation.
“People have always told me to be louder, to be meaner,” he said. “One thing about Jayson is I’m always going to do what the f— I want to do. […]
“It wasn’t on my mind. Just another Wednesday. Another game, another opportunity to come in and try to be the best player I can be.”
How has he learned how to deal with the outside noise?
“Excuse my language,” he said. “You just learn to not give a f—.”
6. Tatum found himself in the second half.
After a slow start in the first which included four of the Celtics’ 10 first-half turnovers against an aggressive trapping defense, Tatum woke up in the third quarter and poured in 17 points, leading the Celtics back from a deficit that stretched as high as 14.
Tatum finished with 32 points on 10-for-20 shooting and 5-for-10 from three in what was billed as his revenge game.
In other words, Tatum did what he has done for much of the past two years. He led the team in scoring and played a solid, consistent game without making the situation about himself.
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“I thought he did great,” Mazzulla said. “I thought he just gave the game what it needed, whether it was passing, whether it was screening, whether it was finishing.”
7. Draymond Green’s new trolling move
Late in the game, Payton Pritchard was fouled by Curry going up for a 3-pointer. After Pritchard knocked down the first free throw, the Warriors’ Draymond Green reached out for a high-five. Somewhat wrong-footed, Pritchard obliged. He proceeded to knock down the second. Green reached out again. This time, Pritchard half-heartedly extended his arm but didn’t bother to make contact. He knocked down the third free throw as well.
Give Green this: He’s a pretty creative troll, even if it doesn’t always work.
8. White caught fire (again).
In the absence of Jaylen Brown (who would have helped the Celtics quite a bit in this matchup, and just about every other matchup as well), White became a volume shooter, which was a pretty good look for him. White finished 7-for-16 from 3-point range, the most 3-pointers he had attempted in a single game since last December when the Celtics played … the Warriors.
Golden State won that game as well, so maybe they are onto something. Still, White had a nice game offensively.
9. White took exception to a big call down the stretch.
With 5:28 remaining in the fourth quarter, Curry curled around a screen and fired up a 3-pointer. He missed, but the officials called White for a foul. White took exception, and the Celtics challenged.
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White and the Celtics contended that Kevon Looney stuck his foot (and his hip) out on the screen, tripping White and sending him stumbling into Curry as he shot. The replays appeared to back up that logic.
The officials, however, didn’t agree. The call was upheld to the consternation of White and Mazzulla, and Curry made all three.
The play came at a big moment: The Celtics were up by five and looked poised to go on a little mini-run that would have put the Warriors in a tough position. Instead, Curry headed to the line and trimmed the deficit to two before erasing the deficit entirely on the next possession with a 3-pointer.
“I thought maybe that Looney, he kind of went and knocked me off balance,” White said. “So that’s what I was saying. But obviously, they said he was legal. So it’s a foul.”
10. Home and away
The Celtics will host the Nets on Friday at 7:30 before traveling to Milwaukee for a 3:30 game against the Bucks on Sunday.
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