NBA Finals: Stephen Curry scores 43, and Warriors beat Celtics to tie series at 2-all
Stephen Curry scored 43 points to lead the Golden State Warriors to a 107-97 victory over the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Friday night, sending the series back to San Francisco knotted at two games apiece.
Two nights after shaking off a foot injury in a Game 3 loss, Curry stomped and shot his way to the third-best playoff performance of his career, adding 10 rebounds and making a pair of baskets during a 10-0 fourth-quarter run that turned a four-point Boston edge into a 100-94 Golden State lead.
“The heart on that man is incredible,” Warriors guard Klay Thompson said. “The things he does, we kind of take for granted at times, to go out there and put us on his back. We’ve got to help him out on Monday.”
Andrew Wiggins had 17 points and 16 boards for the Warriors, who have won at least one road game for 26 consecutive playoff series. They will host Game 5 on Monday night, with Game 6 in Boston on Thursday. Golden State would hold the home-court advantage in a seventh game, if necessary.
“We had to do it the difficult way,” said Celtics coach Ime Udoka, whose team split the first four games in each of its previous two series. “We have to do it again. It could have been an easier road, obviously, if you get the win tonight. But we’re 2-2 now. We know we can do it. We’ve done it before.”
Jayson Tatum had 23 points and 11 rebounds for Boston, but he managed just one basket while playing the entire fourth quarter. Jaylen Brown scored 21 points and Robert Williams III had 12 rebounds.
Marcus Smart, who scored 18 points, hit a three-pointer to give the Celtics a 94-90 lead with just more than five minutes remaining. But they missed six consecutive shots and did not score again until the 1:18 mark, after Curry made a floater and a three-pointer to give the Warriors a 100-94 lead.
“He wasn’t letting us lose. That’s all it boils down to,” Warriors big man Draymond Green said. “I could tell in his demeanor, last couple of days, even after Game 3, that he was going to come out with that kind of fire.”
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Golden State outscored Boston 17-3 to close the game.
Fans arriving at TD Garden for what could have been the final time this season found a T-shirt draped over their seats with the Celtics’ 17 NBA championship banners lined up on the front. There was a blank rectangle where the 18th would go.
Now the Celtics would need to win at least one more time in San Francisco to fill in the blank.
The amped-up crowd spent much of the game booing Green, chanting an obscenity at him that is usually reserved for Bucky Dent, and jeering his many misses. The four-time All-Star shot one for seven but finished with nine rebounds and eight assists to go with two points.
He also had an offensive rebound and a dish to Curry after returning to the game in the final minute to eliminate any chance of a Boston comeback.
“He’s the ultimate competitor. Made huge plays down the stretch,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said of Green. “This is a tough series for him to score because of Boston’s size and athleticism, but he’s still impacting the game at a huge level.”
The Lakers introduced Darvin Ham as their 28th coach Monday, and he expects Russell Westbrook will be a contributor on the team next season.
Injury report
Curry’s ankle was an issue coming into the night after Boston’s Al Horford landed on it late in Game 3. But didn’t seem to bother him Friday night: He played 41 minutes — only Wiggins spent more time on the court for the Warriors — and made 14 of 26 shots, including seven of 14 from three-point range.
“Never even looked like it was a factor,” Kerr said. “The physicality out there is pretty dramatic. Boston’s got the best defense in the league — huge and powerful at every position, and for Steph to take that kind of pressure all game long and still be able to defend I think this is the strongest physically he’s ever been in his career.”
Williams was listed as questionable coming into the game with the knee injury that kept him out at the end of the regular season and the start of the playoffs. He started strongly, with 10 rebounds in the first half, but he was limping in the second half and on the bench in the final minutes.
He finished with seven points to go with four assists and two blocked shots, playing 31 minutes.
Third-quarter edge
The Warriors won the third quarter for the fourth game in a row but not as decisively as they had previously.
Golden State had a 30-24 edge coming out of the break, closing with a 14-7 run to erase a six-point Boston lead. Curry scored 14 points in the quarter, making four three-pointers.
The Warriors have outscored the Celtics by a combined score of 136-87 in the third quarter in the Finals.
This time, it was the fourth quarter that was decisive.
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