Warriors forward Draymond Green reacts during the second half of Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night in San Francisco. Jed Jacobsohn/Associated Press
The Boston Celtics put together their best 12 minutes of the postseason in the fourth quarter of Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night. Draymond Green doesn’t think they can do it again.
The veteran forward didn’t show any concern after Golden State lost home-court advantage with a 120-108 loss to the Celtics. Boston outscored the Warriors 40-16 in the final quarter while shooting 75 percent from 3-point range over the last 12 minutes.
Green pointed to those numbers while expressing confidence that the Warriors have little to worry about in bouncing back.
“I think they stayed within striking distance, and they made shots late,” Green said. “So we’ll be fine. We’ll figure out the ways we can stop them from getting those 3s and take them away. I don’t think it was a rhythm thing. We pretty much dominated the game for the first 41, 42 minutes. So we’ll be fine.”
Green also singled out hot scoring nights from specific Celtics shooters in describing his lack of concern about the Warriors’ prospects in the series.
“They hit 21 3s, and Marcus Smart and Al Horford and Derrick White combined for 15 of them,” Green said. “The guys are good shooters, but they combined for, what, 15 for 23 from those guys, eh, you know, so, we’ll be fine.”
Green himself struggled with his shot, going 2 of 12 from the field before fouling out in the final minute.
“I missed some bunnies,” he said. “My 3s felt good. You know, I’ll continue to stay aggressive. They will fall. You know, tonight, they didn’t.”
Green was a minus-20 in the fourth quarter as Boston used a 20-2 run in the closing minutes to put the Warriors away and hand them their first home loss of the postseason. Golden State looked shell-shocked for much of the final quarter, going scoreless for nearly a five-minute stretch as Boston turned a three-point deficit into a double-digit lead before Klay Thompson snapped the drought with 1:05 left. By that point, the Celtics were up by 14 already and the game was effectively over.
“Whether you win every game at home, you still want to win one on the road,” Green said. “And our history, we’ve always won one on the road. So, you know, it’s just nothing to panic about. It’s the first team to win four games, not the first to win one. So I think that’s where the confidence comes from, just understand that.”
Green and the Warriors will try to even the series at Chase Center on Sunday night when they host the Celtics in Game 2.
RECORD START FOR CURRY: It took Steph Curry just 12 minutes to set an NBA Finals record on Thursday night at Chase Center.
Curry’s six 3-pointers in the first quarter marked the most by a player in an individual quarter of the NBA Finals, as he nailed 6 of 8 attempts.
Curry finished the quarter with 21 points on 7 of 9 from the field. The 21 points are the most Curry has ever scored in the first quarter of a playoff game, and just two shy of his playoff career-high of 23 points in a quarter.
According to ESPN Stats & Info, Curry’s 21 first-quarter points are the most in a finals quarter since Michael Jordan had 22 in the fourth quarter of Game 4 against Phoenix in 1993.
Despite Curry’s brilliance from beyond the arc, the Celtics largely kept pace with the Warriors, as Golden State only finished the first quarter with a 32-28 lead. He finished the game with 34 points on 12-for-25 shooting overall and 7 for 14 on 3-point attempts. Curry added five assists and five rebounds.
BETTING FAVORITES: The Celtics stunned the Chase Center crowd with a fourth-quarter run to turn a 12-point deficit entering the final quarter into a 12-point victory.
The betting markets figured that was enough to install Boston as the new betting favorite in the series after initially favoring the Warriors before Game 1.
The Celtics are now -175 to become NBA champions, according to the Vegas Insider consensus.
The Warriors are now at +146. Prior to Thursday’s tipoff, the Warriors were favorites at -135, with Boston installed as +155 underdogs.
Curry said after the loss that the Warriors will rely on their experience as they seek to bounce back.
“We have been through this a couple times. You know, you lose in the first game of a series but we have obviously had some tough losses in series and you find a way to bounce back,” he said Thursday night.
“You have to rely on that experience but it’s also just making the necessary game plan adjustments and coming out with a focused effort that everybody can kind of feel like they are going to impact the game at some point.”
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