BOSTON – Draymond Inexperienced didn’t maintain again in his evaluation of how he performed in Recreation 3 of the NBA Finals.
“Like s—,” he mentioned following the Warriors’ 116-100 loss to the Celtics. “I used to be mushy. That’s what was most disappointing to me, for us.”
Inexperienced set the tone for his teammates in Golden State’s Recreation 2 win at Chase Heart out of the gates along with his aggressive play. However he didn’t deliver the identical power and desperation Wednesday evening in Boston as the group hurled a refrain of boos and profanity-laced chants at him.
The consequence was an underwhelming displaying for the undersized Warriors, who have been bullied by the assertive Celtics — particularly within the inside — for almost all of the evening.
Golden State has dominated the boards for a lot of the playoffs, however Boston outrebounded the Warriors 47-31 in Recreation 3. That features 15 offensive rebounds for the Celtics, who had snatched solely 13 offensive boards by means of the primary two video games.
Boston made probably the most of its further possessions because it outscored the Warriors 22-11 on second-chance alternatives.
“The offensive rebounds have been only a killer,” coach Steve Kerr mentioned. “That was actually the distinction within the sport. We made a number of stops, particularly within the second half the place we had an opportunity to chop into the lead or make a bit push, and so they bought offensive boards. These have been robust.”
Klay Thompson was uncertain what led to the rebounding discrepancy, although he pointed to the Warriors’ weak boxing-out efforts as a attainable offender.
“They did have approach too many second-chance factors. It’s arduous to beat a staff when that occurs,” Thompson mentioned. “I give ourselves credit score, although, for combating again and taking the lead. It simply sucks if you let one slip away like that.”
However the rebounding wasn’t Golden State’s solely concern in Recreation 3. The Warriors have been dominated inside because the Celtics’ stifling protection always hounded them on the rim. Robert Williams III had 4 of the staff’s seven blocks and the Celtics outscored Golden State 52-26 within the paint.
Kevon Looney is the Warriors’ lone conventional and wholesome heart because the staff’s 2021 prime decide James Wiseman – who, by the way in which, was trending on Twitter after the loss – was shut down for the season following setbacks in his gradual rehab course of from a knee harm. However regardless of the Warriors’ struggles, Looney performed solely 17 minutes, grabbing seven rebounds and scoring six factors.
“We now have to consider what’s taking place on the ground, what we want: Do we want ground spacing, do we want higher rebounding? And we have been form of plugging holes tonight,” Kerr mentioned. “They did an excellent job. They earned the win. They put lots of stress on us and felt like we have been form of swimming upstream a lot of the evening.”
The Warriors brass has reiterated quite a few occasions that they don’t remorse opting towards including one other huge man earlier than the commerce deadline. With out Wiseman, the Warriors nonetheless managed to beat back-to-back league MVP Nikola Jokic and energy by means of to the NBA Finals.
However the Warriors’ lack of dimension might need lastly caught as much as them towards the hard-nosed Celtics.