SAN FRANCISCO — What precisely goes on within the Warriors’ locker room throughout halftime stays largely a thriller.
Kevon Looney dismissed the notion that there could possibly be a Rocky Balboa-style speech to hype the group up for the second half of the sport as he famous after the Warriors most up-to-date win Sunday that “not rather a lot is claimed.”
Regardless of the Warriors are doing seems to be working. Golden State has continued its development of thriving in third quarters because the Warriors have dominated the Celtics to the tune of 73-38 within the NBA Finals throughout the first 12 minutes after the break.
Boston used a shocking fourth-quarter comeback to beat Golden State’s third-quarter flurry in Recreation 1 of the NBA Finals Thursday however couldn’t muster up the identical late-game magic in Recreation 2.
The Warriors outscored the Celtics by 35-14 throughout one other spectacular third-quarter torrent en path to their 107-88 blowout win over Boston to even the collection 1-1.
After pummeling the Warriors 40-16 down the stretch in Recreation 1, the Celtics had no solutions for the Warriors in Recreation 2 as Boston continued to battle to get issues going after halftime. After Golden State scored the primary six factors within the fourth quarter to increase their result in 29, Boston pulled its starters and known as it an evening.
“We’ve simply received to be able to go from that second half on,” Derrick White stated after the loss. “It’s simple to speak about it, however we’ve received to go there, take it up, every man themselves, and go and do it.”
Stephen Curry had rather a lot to do with energizing the Warriors’ push Sunday evening. He scored 14 factors — as many as the complete Celtics crew within the third — and made a trio of 3-pointers. Klay Thompson additionally hit a momentum-shifting shot from downtown, his solely 3-pointer of the evening, and Jordan Poole, after a poor first half, drained a pair of his personal, together with a close to half-court heave on the buzzer to cap off the pivotal interval.
The Warriors additionally transformed Boston’s 5 turnovers into 11 factors.
Jayson Tatum, who scored 21 of his 28 factors within the first half, stated turnovers and “letting our offense have an effect on how we defend” had been two of the principle causes Boston fell behind within the second half.
“We had been a bit stagnant within the third quarter, and I really feel prefer it translated on the defensive finish,” he stated. “They received going and hitting photographs and issues like that.”
Whereas Boston has struggled out of the gates within the second half, the Warriors have historically finished properly after the mid-game breather. Golden State has beat its opponents throughout that body in 11 of its 18 video games throughout this playoff run. On six events, the Warriors have outscored their rivals in third quarters by double digits.
“We come out in that third quarter and we all know how vital it's to ship that first punch and attempt to be aggressive, bodily, decisive,” Poole stated. “That’s just about what it's. I believe we all know how vital these first couple minutes are, and we attempt to execute as greatest we will.”
That can proceed to be the mindset for Golden State, who prevented falling in a calamitous 2-0 gap earlier than the best-of-seven collection shifted to Boston. How the Celtics would possibly counteract the Warriors’ second-half cost has but to be seen. But when Boston coach Ime Udoka can’t discover a resolution, it might imply unhealthy information for the Celtics.
“We’ve simply received to return out and play basketball for 48 minutes,” Jaylen Brown stated. “We’re not an ideal crew, however we’ll determine it out going ahead. We’ve simply received to return out and play basketball. We all know the Warriors are a third-quarter crew. We talked about it. They nonetheless got here out and had been capable of go on a run. We’ve simply received to have the ability to reply.”