BOSTON — Steph Curry was good, impressive, and transcendent during Activity 4 of the NBA Finals, but specifically so in the fourth quarter.
He’s the key motive that the Warriors are heading again to San Francisco tied 2-2.
But don’t forget about that it normally takes two to tango, and Boston’s concurrent lackluster overall performance raises really serious queries about their readiness to re-choose the lead in these Finals.
In a series that has furnished so lots of twists and turns I’m finding motion unwell, Activity 4’s swing could possibly tilt the series back again into the Warriors’ favor irrevocably.
Soon after all, they know what to do when it’s all on the line.
And the Celtics — for all their amazing attributes — really do not.
With this now staying a three-activity collection, there is now no place for Boston to hide.
The Celtics experienced 1 hand on the Larry O’Brien Trophy Friday. The Warriors only had 1 person carrying out substantially of just about anything superior. An insurmountable 3-1 Finals guide (sorry, the 2016 Cavs these Warriors are not) looked nicely in the cards for Boston as the Warriors had been swapping Jordan Poole and Draymond Inexperienced for offensive and defensive purposes late in the contest.
Yes, there was no concern who the greater workforce was on Friday evening, or in this series.
But Boston couldn’t shut.
It is a pattern that has haunted them all over this postseason. In 12 playoff video games, they have an abysmal offensive score of 89 in “clutch” conditions, which is within five points with fewer than 5 minutes to participate in.
Which is much and absent the worst mark of any team that advanced out of the 1st round.
Indeed, they are in the Finals now, but when the clock strikes “winning time” Boston clenches.
For all the Warriors’ struggles in the fourth quarter in this series, they do basically know what to do in a genuinely limited video game which is likely down to the wire. Game 4 was the first time this collection that a “clutch” problem transpired for extra than a possession or two. And the Warriors — who have a “clutch” offense that scores 1.24 factors for every possession this postseason — took whole edge of Boston’s struggles in Video game 4.
I cannot visualize this is the final time Boston’s puckering is a element.
We noticed Boston’s lack of ability to complete the career in the Eastern Meeting Finals, when the Celtics choked absent a 97-94 direct with a lot less than 5 minutes to perform at dwelling in an elimination Activity 6. The Warmth outscored them 17-9 to shut the contest.
The Celtics received Video game 7 of that collection, but not right before enabling Miami to try a recreation-winning shot with 16 seconds remaining immediately after the Celtics held an 11-issue guide into the last 160 seconds of the activity and a 9-issue lead with significantly less than 90 seconds in the match.
Boston did not make a field objective in the final 4:28 of that contest.
In Game 4, Friday, the Warriors went on a 10- operate among 5:18 and 1:32 remaining in the match.
Boston skipped all 6 of their field plans through that extend (obviously), but five ended up 3-pointers — two coming from Marcus Smart.
The Warriors liked it.
The irony is that Boston is bodily equipped to shut — they have two wings that can place it on the ground and score from all 3 concentrations in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. The Warriors only have a person guy like that — Andrew Wiggins — and taking around a contest like that is hardly his activity.
But if the Celtics continue to enjoy the sort of hero-ball with Tatum and Brown that makes unnecessarily tricky pictures and unsightly misses late in online games, the Warriors will feast on the rebounds and the changeover options.
Game 4 delivered every thing the Warriors could have wished.
“I feel it was incredibly stagnant. For no matter what purpose, we just weren’t executing like we needed to offensively,” Celtics forward Al Horford claimed of the Celtics’ fourth-quarter offense. “Winning is really hard. We do it, and there are times where we’re developing as a team, as a group nonetheless, even now. This is a different challenge, a further possibility for us to embrace this and be better.”
That is not just some thing you want to be figuring out in Recreation 5 of the NBA Finals, but, hey, we all are on our own journeys.
And probably they do figure it out.
Or probably the Warriors — getting been in crazier predicaments versus tougher groups — use the two clear rewards they have in this series — Curry and encounter — and assert the title.
And if it all comes down to the closing minutes of a Game 7, I know who I am getting to earn.
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