SAN FRANCISCO — The Boston Celtics used a remarkable comeback to overcome their typically disastrous third quarter in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
They had no such luck in Game 2.
The Golden State Warriors, powered by a 35-14 third quarter, blew out Boston Sunday night, winning 107-88 at Chase Center to even up this best-of-7 series at one game apiece. And the Warriors did so by taking advantage of what has, consistently, been Boston’s Achilles heel throughout these playoffs: poor starts to second halves.
“It’s something we have to fix,” Celtics center Al Horford said.
In the three days between Games 1 and 2, Boston talked repeatedly about the need to avoid another ugly third quarter like the one it had to begin this series, as Golden State’s 38-24 advantage in the third in Game 1 was only erased thanks to the Celtics turning around and having their own insane fourth quarter.
There was no such comeback, however, in Game 2. Boston shot just 4-for-17 in the quarter and committed five turnovers that became 11 Warriors points. Golden State, meanwhile, went 7-for-12 from 3-point range, as Stephen Curry matched Boston’s point total by himself.
By the time Jordan Poole buried too bombs from way behind the 3-point line inside the final 30 seconds of the quarter — first hitting a 29-footer before then burying one from nearly the halfcourt line as the buzzer sounded — the damage had already been done, leaving the formality of the final 12 minutes to be played for Golden State to tie this series up.
“I think tonight, turnovers, and I think sometimes letting our offense affect how we defend, kind of was a little stagnant in the third quarter,” said Jayson Tatum, who led Boston with 28 points but finished a minus-36 — the worst plus-minus of his career. “I feel like it translated on the defensive end, and they got going and hitting shots and things like that.”
It is far from surprising that Boston is struggling in the third quarter, as it has been a sore spot for Boston throughout the playoffs. Some numbers to back that up:
– Boston now has two of the worst third quarters in this year’s playoffs: Game 1 against the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals, when the Celtics were outscored by 25, and Golden State’s 21-point edge in Game 2.
– The Celtics have been outscored by at least 14 points four times in the third quarter in these playoffs — all of which have come on the road. Three of those games have been Boston’s three road losses in these playoffs (Game 3 against Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference semifinals, Game 1 against Miami and Game 2 against Golden State). Their one win in that situation was Game 1 of this series.
– Boston has been outscored by 37 points in the third quarter in these playoffs. And, in Game 2, they had more turnovers (5) in the third quarter than made field goals (4).
– The Celtics shot 2-for-12 on contested shots in the third quarter, per ESPN tracking data, and is 4-for-22 on contested looks in the third quarter in the series. Over the course of the playoffs, Boston is shooting 35.7 percent on contested shots in the third, which ranks 15th among the 16 teams who participated in the playoffs (only Toronto, which lost in the first round, was worse).
There’s a reason, after all, Boston said several variations of the same theme over the past couple days: after saying over and over it’s time to play better in the third quarter, it’s time to actually do so.
Then they proceeded to have their third quarter history repeat itself.
“Yeah, it’s definitely frustrating,” Celtics guard Derrick White said. “I mean, we’ve talked about it pretty much the whole postseason. It’s easy to talk about, but we’ve got to go out there and change something.
“That was a big quarter for them, and really a quarter that put us away.”
Boston’s third quarter problem wasn’t the only thing to repeat itself from Boston’s bad moments in this postseason. When the Celtics struggle, it’s generally because of turnovers. And, in this game, Boston had 21 turnovers that became 33 Warriors points, the second-most points off turnovers in an NBA Finals game in the last 25 years — including 11 live ball turnovers, and nine steals.
“That’s been an ongoing theme in the playoffs so far,” Celtics coach Ime Udoka said. “We’ve turned over the ball. Take teams out of scoring against us in the half court, give them some baskets.
“But it was more of the same in that third quarter. We had 11 for 18 points in that first half and gave up five or six more in that quarter. Kind of blew it open and that hampered our offense, as well.”
Additionally, after members of Boston’s supporting cast Al Horford, Marcus Smart and Derrick White hit 15 3-pointers in Game 1, the Celtics hit 15 as a team. Players not named Tatum or Jaylen Brown went a combined 6-for-19 from deep.
Boston also struggled mightily from 2-point range, going 15-for-43 on 2-point shots (34.8 percent) — shooting worse on them than on 3s.
Mostly, though, Boston felt like it let an opportunity slip through its fingers to put Golden State on life support. The Celtics went into the locker room at halftime feeling like they didn’t play well, and yet were only down by 2. Then they played even worse in the third, and that was that.
Still, the Celtics do head back home to Boston with the series knotted up at a game apiece and with home court advantage successfully secured. Boston knows it has plenty of things to improve if it wants to maintain that advantage and, after dropping two home games to both Milwaukee and Miami over the last two rounds, knows they need to protect home court this time.
“The past doesn’t matter,” Brown said. “Nothing in the past matters up until this moment, to be honest. Everything that happened in the last series and the series before, who cares.
“Right now we’re here playing a different opponent, a different team, and we’ve got to look at it as such. We’ve got to come out and play our best version of basketball because we’re capable of doing it . So we’ve just got to come out and do that.”
ESPN’s Stats and Information research contributed to this story.
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