The Boston Celtics (48-12) avenged their loss in the 2022 Finals against the Golden State Warriors (32-28) with an overwhelming 140-88 victory and a historic first quarter by Jaylen Brown and another extraordinary second quarter by Jayson Tatum. It is the third largest defeat in the history of the Californian franchise.
The locals scored their eleventh straight victory, while the Warriors had won three in a row and the previous time they faced Boston this season. Brown added 29 points (19 of them in the first quarter), 3 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal. Tatum celebrated his 26th birthday with 27 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal and a block. Payton Pritchard, coming off the bench, contributed 19 points, Derrick White 14, and Sam Hauser 12. Dominican Al Horford reached 14,000 points in his career adding 7 points.
For the Warriors, the top scorer was the New York rookie of Dominican origin Lester Quiñones coming off the bench with 17 points and 5 rebounds. Apart from Quiñones, only Moses Moody, with 11, reached double figures. Steph Curry, who averages 27.5 points per game, only contributed 4 points. The Celtics played without decisive Latvian center Kristaps Porzingis due to injury.
Brown reached double figures, and White his 8 points in just over 4 minutes of play, and then Curry served his third assist so that Quiñones debuted in the match with a triple (21-19). In less than a minute, Brown hit 3 triples, adding 19 in 7 minutes of play, shaking the foundations of the TD Garden like an earthquake with the celebration (30-21).
Tatum didn’t score his first basket until 10 minutes had been played. The Celtics opened the game with a 23-1 run. The green stadium roared with a layup and another 3-pointer by the great little Pritchard and another run by Holiday (44-22).
In the first minutes of the second quarter, Boston increased the lead to 32-3 and shortly after, with Tatum in his best version, they reached 57-28. The faces on the Warriors bench reflected concern and Curry had only scored 4 points with 4.24 minutes remaining (64-32).
Three triples from White and another 3 in a row from Tatum (who had 20 points in the second quarter and 2 in the first) made history by achieving the largest advantage, 44 points, achieved by the Celtics in the first half (82-38) .
Boston did not forgive in defense and everything came out in attack, with fantasy passes, its stars shining, and with the Dominican Al Horford giving the Celtics a lead of 51 points (99-48) with more than a quarter and a half left. game.
The legendary coach of the Warriors, Steve Kerr, called timeouts without getting his pupils to react while the Celtics coach, Joe Mazzulla, began to use the bench and Pritchard left the score at 115-62 at the end of the third segment. The Warriors’ top scorer so far was Moses Moody with 11 points, the only one on his squad in double figures.
Pritchard hit his second triple at the start of the final quarter, increasing the home lead to 56. It was the 22nd triple for the Celtics, who were averaging 16.2 triples per game before the beating of the Warriors. With the Warriors also playing with the bench in the final minutes, the Celtics avenged their loss in the 2022 finals with a crushing victory (140-88).
