It happens a lot: The Celtics didn’t come out to play the first quarter of Game 2 of the 2022 NBA Finals. No, they launched into the fifth set of the opening duel, with the inertia of their dazzling comeback on Thursday. As if only a short break had passed to get some air and almost 72 hours had not actually passed. The Celtics, it was obvious, had spent the days caged in the hotel, happy but anxious, wanting to play more. They had seen the road to the ring as a freeway, the Chase Center as a lavish stopover to glory. And they went out to play convinced that the Finals could be short, that the Bay smelled of blood.
In two and a half minutes, the Celtics were leading 5-13. In eight, 13-22. His defense suffocated the Warriors, who seemed light again, in the zone. And this time they did not grant a grace period to Stephen Curry, who went from making six triples in the first quarter of the Finals to shooting only 3 (scored one) in those first twelve minutes in which the Celtics, in attack, took shots clean and intelligently took advantage of every adjustment made by Steve Kerr, like someone who always knows what his rival is going to do a couple of seconds before. Like those poorly choreographed fights in B-movie martial arts.
And yet, that first quarter closed with a 31-30 that was an exercise in resistance for the Warriors: which, simply, they could not lose because they had exhausted the lives (for now), in their disastrous end of the third game , when a +15 became a -12 and the field factor changed from the ocean, 5,000 kilometers from California to Massachusetts. That is the trump card now for the Celtics, who pack their bags with the certainty that they have done the job but also with the lesson learned: glory is always a little further than it seems, the highway usually includes unexpected detours, roads Secondaries in which you run the risk of, beware of misreading the map, hopelessly lost. The Warriors have 26 straight playoff ties winning at least one game on the road. And that data will resonate in the bones of these Finals for the next two days, until the stage opens in Boston on Wednesday.
Because that start with a feeling of check (even checkmate), that feeling of physical and moral superiority in the first few minutes, completely vanished in a prodigious recovery by the Warriors, who went from being in tow and suffering as if condemned to destroying all the signs of identity of his rival and make sure that there is an End and that there is always a way. Especially if you have Stephen Curry. Once again, the third quarter was a thunderous knock. Only this time even bigger, so violent (35-14) that it left the Celtics without reaction. On the canvas, no hint of returning like three days before. Since Thursday, the Warriors had expressed confidence, calm, broad vision, Franciscan patience. It was not a mask. In the 25th minute, just after returning from the locker room, the match was 52-52. Eleven later, at the end of the third quarter, it was an 87-64 run that not only secured the 1-1, but also emotionally reinserted the Warriors and will have an effect, for sure, on the Celtics’ armor, so shockproof that They still haven’t lost two games in a row in these playoffs: on Wednesday, it seems, something more than the third point of these Finals will be decided.
When it seemed that the Celtics were going to go through the resuscitation room in time (from 68-56 to 68-62) the final blow fell to them, a 19-2 in four and a half minutes in which all their production was two free throws by Jayson Tatum. In an unexpected twist of the script, proof that tonight would not be green, that third quarter closed with two impossible triples by Jordan Poole, one from ten meters and the other from the center of the track. One of the players mentioned after the first game, and who had once again put his team in danger with his instability in the first half, left the image of the night and scared away all the ghosts with two circus shots. He also finished with 17 points, a 5/9 in triples and a smile from ear to ear.
In those minutes of absolute domination, the Warriors closed their defense with an exciting physical exercise. Much more elasticity in the rotations to avoid free triples, hands everywhere and compression in the area. And rebounds, and movement without errors in attack. In the young to big, Draymond Green and Kevon Looney ended up completely dominating Robert Williams and an Al Horford who went from hitting six 3-pointers in Game 1 to shooting none. Those great quintets left the Celtics without spaces, squeezed by the urgency of some Warriors with the lesson learned and their backs against the wall. The initial deployment was diluted: fewer passes, no released shot, no routes to the hoop. The more minutes passed, the greater the reliance on Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, who had scored or passed 44 of the team’s 50 points at halftime. And that they had 45 (of 64 total at the end of the third quarter), before the last quarter will be played with a white flag and rest for the main actors.
Tatum finished with 28 points, 21 in a first half in which he won time that his team did not take advantage of. Brown was a martyrdom at the start (13 points in 8 minutes) and a mess afterwards (at the end 17 and 5/17 in shots). Udoka didn’t change plans in time, and the Warriors’ extra effort canceled out Smart, Horford and a White who started producing too late. The reverse script to the first game. The public welcomed the return of Gary Payton, who had been out for ten games. With him and Otto Porter, Steve Kerr raised more physical quintets and with more defensive bellows. Iguodala was absent and Bjeliça played good minutes. A new course, with Draymond Green hysterical in the bad (he was around the expulsion) and the good (more aggressive in attack, transcendental in defense) and a Klay Thompson who is still off but, at least, improved after the break: 7 points, 1 /8 on 3s and the feeling that a turnaround in his performance could get the Celtics into serious trouble.
The rest, the best for last, was Stephen Curry. That he barely rested for the first three quarters and played a fabulous game. Without stepping on the court in the last quarter, he finished with 29 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 5/12 in triples and only two turnovers. A +24 in 32 minutes. Patient, expert and hard, legs and head. First smart at reading, then skillful at breaking down the Celtics’ defense. His passes opened gaps that didn’t exist in the zones and they gave him just the right margin, the millimeter he needs, to find his shots. Tireless, hard at defense, contained and focused, fully mature, Curry charged with his team when everything was in doubt and put the turbo when the floodgates opened and the golden tides of the Bay rose. The Warriors were alive, the 2022 Final has only heated up in the first exchange. From a series to seven to one to five, now with de facto home court advantage for the Celtics but a possible seventh game, it should be remembered, in this Chase Center that started out fearful, with an anticlimactic hangover, and ended up roaring. The Warriors, like so many times, put on the percussion. And Stephen Curry, as in what is already an entire era of basketball, the score. Tie and trip to Boston: it’s time to talk to old Garden, no less.