Markus Andrews

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    The Celtics Got Lucky By Not Getting What They Wanted

    Other teams’ superstars kept getting traded, and the Celtics wanted in on the action. Boston (mostly) missed out, and is probably better off for it.Moments after Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals ended last month, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown embraced each other.“They said we couldn’t play together,” Tatum said with a wide smile.That had been the most pressing issue facing the Boston Celtics since Tatum, 24, and Brown, 25, were handed the reins to the team before the 2019-20 season. That year — Tatum’s third and Brown’s fourth in the N.B.A. — they led the team to within two wins of reaching the finals. Since then, they have faced questions about whether Boston could be a championship-caliber team built around them.Those questions were at their loudest earlier this year — dominating TV panels and podcasts — when the Celtics were 18-21 and on pace to miss the playoffs. Instead, a remarkable turnaround propelled the Celtics into the finals, against Golden State, for the first time since 2010.“We definitely thought about and had conversations about trading for a number of the great players that were sort of thought to be available over the past 10 years,” Wyc Grousbeck, the owner of the Celtics, said in an interview. “It’d be wrong to say we never engaged in trade talks with player X, Y or Z.”But, he added, “we valued our guys more than, apparently, the market did.”The trend in the N.B.A. over the last 15 years — though it didn’t originate then — has been to chase the creation of so-called superteams at the expense of developing continuity and nurturing young players. The 2007-8 Celtics, who brought in Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett to complement Paul Pierce through blockbuster trades and won a championship, were a prominent example of this.Since then, several teams have emptied their cupboards of draft picks and young players to acquire big-name stars — as the Celtics did — in a leaguewide arms race to compete for mercenary championships. This has coincided with the player empowerment movement, where top players have tried, often successfully, to be traded to teams with other stars.This has left the players’ new teams on edge, wondering if giving up all the picks and young players will be worth it.The Celtics tried to get in on the trend — they traded for Kyrie Irving and signed Gordon Hayward to a big free-agent deal just after drafting Tatum in 2017 — but today’s team is the result of yearslong investment in young players. The Celtics are on the doorstep of a championship with a foundation that goes against what has become conventional wisdom about team-building in the N.B.A. Whether as a result of luck or shrewd front office work, or both, the Celtics’ approach is paying off.In recent years, the All-Stars Jimmy Butler, Kawhi Leonard, Ben Simmons, James Harden, Anthony Davis and Paul George have been among those to engineer trades. Irving forced a trade out of Cleveland to land in Boston.Almost every time a star was rumored to want out of their situation, the Celtics would be linked to the trade talks. Few teams could offer young players as talented as Boston’s or as many draft picks, some of which Boston acquired in a heist of a deal with the Nets as they created their own superteam in 2013.Grousbeck declined to comment on what deals Boston came close to making. In at least one case, the star seemingly made the decision for the Celtics. Davis’s father, Anthony Davis Sr., publicly said that he didn’t want his son playing in Boston — a signal that even if Davis were traded to Boston, he wouldn’t re-sign once his contract expired, making it less worthwhile for the Celtics to part with their top players in a deal.Brown, left, and Tatum were drafted one year apart. Their growth over the past five years, especially this season, has made Boston a top contender in the Eastern Conference.Elsa/Getty Images“I think that what happens is you want to trade draft capital if you get the right deals and if you feel like you’re close enough to winning,” Danny Ainge, who was Boston’s president of basketball operations from 2003-21, told Sports Illustrated recently. “None of us know what would have happened in different circumstances.”In some cases, superteam gambles worked — at least in the short term. The Toronto Raptors won the championship in 2019, led by Leonard; the Lakers won a title in 2020 with Davis. But the Nets won just one playoff series with Harden before he forced a trade to the Philadelphia 76ers in February. To get Harden from Houston, the Nets had given up the 24-year-old center Jarrett Allen, who made his first All-Star team this year with Cleveland.The Nets’ one series win with Harden came against Boston in the first round of the 2021 playoffs, with Brown out injured. The Celtics, left behind in the superteam arms race, seemed adrift. Some of their recent first-round draft picks, like Romeo Langford (2019) and Aaron Nesmith (2020), looked like misses. Irving and Hayward were gone. Kemba Walker, a former All-Star whom the Celtics had signed to a maximum contract to replace Irving, had been injured and playing poorly. Suddenly, Boston looked like a team that had, unlike the Raptors and Lakers title teams, held on to its young players for too long.The day after the Celtics were eliminated from last year’s playoffs, Boston simultaneously announced that Ainge was stepping down as team president and that Brad Stevens would replace him. Stevens had been the team’s head coach for eight seasons, but he had no front office experience.Grousbeck said he pitched Stevens on replacing Ainge, citing Stevens’s tenure with the team and a “personal bond” that he had with ownership. At the news conference announcing the move last June, Stevens said he had discussed the possibility of taking over the position with both Ainge and Grousbeck, and that he told Grousbeck: “I love the Celtics. I want to do what’s best for the Celtics.”One of Stevens’s first moves was to hire Ime Udoka as coach, Udoka’s first leading role after nine years as an assistant. Grousbeck said he wasn’t worried about the inexperience of Stevens and Udoka in their new jobs.“I went to Ime and Brad before the season started and specifically said in person, ‘I’m not stressed about how this season starts,’” Grousbeck said.There are countless examples of professional sports owners preaching patience but not practicing it. As the season progressed, the Celtics mostly kept the faith that they could win with Tatum and Brown as their centerpieces.“Now, did I start worrying in the first half? Yes, I did. But I kept it to myself,” Grousbeck said.Marcus Smart, left, has been a vocal leader for the Celtics and critical as a defender. He was named the defensive player of the year this season, the first guard to win the award since Gary Payton in the 1990s.Winslow Townson/Getty ImagesAfter their 18-21 start, the Celtics went 33-10 and earned the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Most of the players in their finals rotation were drafted by the Celtics and are 25 and younger, including Tatum (24), Brown (25), Robert Williams III (24), Grant Williams (23) and Payton Pritchard (24). Marcus Smart, 28, was drafted by the Celtics in 2014 and named the defensive player of the year this season.This would appear to leave the Celtics in strong shape for years to come. They’re in the finals and many of their players haven’t hit their primes. But championship windows can be slim. After this year, the N.B.A. will have crowned at least five different teams as champion in seven years. The Celtics might end up regretting not trading for Davis or another big name if they don’t win a title this year. After all, just one year ago, when the Celtics looked to be locked into mediocrity, the Phoenix Suns came within two wins of a championship, only to slink out in the second round of this postseason despite being the West’s No. 1 seed.But if Boston wins, perhaps the next team will think twice before striking a deal when the next Harden or Simmons tries to force a trade. The Celtics aren’t quite the model of patience — a stroke of luck, it seems, felled their superstar trade negotiations — but what they have appears to be working just fine.Not that Grousbeck is interested in taking a victory lap.“I don’t think anybody needs any advice from us about building a team,” Grousbeck said. More

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    From Santo Domingo to the N.B.A. Finals, Al Horford Is at Home

    BOSTON — When Al Horford was 14 years old, he moved from the Dominican Republic, where he’d been raised by his mother in Santo Domingo, to Michigan, where his father and four of his half-siblings lived.“That was just so awesome,” said Anna Horford, 29, Al’s half sister. “He helped raise us.”He babysat his siblings, and they’d play baseball, volleyball or basketball in the backyard. Anna recalled Al skipping high school parties to stay with them.When they got old enough to go to parties themselves, he’d advise them, urging them to be safe and call him if they needed a ride.“He’s always kind of taken on more of a dad role,” Anna said. “He’s about six years older than the next oldest Horford kid. He’s always been older, and he’s always kind of led the path in a way. I think it’s the same thing with the Celtics.”She added: “I joke that he’s like the team dad of the Celtics. Because he’ll always kind of put the guys in line, or when he speaks they kind of really make sure to listen and pay attention and give him that respect.”Horford, at 36 years old, is the oldest player on the Celtics.Jed Jacobsohn/Associated PressAt the start of this season, Al Horford, 36, was the only Celtics player in his 30s. Boston’s core group includes three 20-somethings, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart, who were just starting their N.B.A. journeys six years ago when Horford first became a Celtic.He left Boston briefly before returning this season, and has provided veteran leadership and stability to an otherwise young Celtics team. His presence and his play have helped Boston make a push for the franchise’s 18th championship.“They’re different, they’ve grown, they’re much better,” Horford said of Tatum, Brown and Smart. “This is kind of their team. This is kind of their time, you know? And I’m just happy to be a part of it now.”When Boston clinched the Eastern Conference championship with a Game 7 win over the Miami Heat, Horford became the first Dominican player to make it to the N.B.A. finals. Across tenures with Atlanta, Boston and Philadelphia, he had played in 141 playoff games without making a finals appearance — more than any other player.The outpouring of emotion he displayed as the Celtics celebrated their conference title reflected how much it meant to him. But it meant a lot to his teammates, too.“Nobody deserves it more than this guy on my right, right here, man,” Brown said that night. “His energy, his demeanor, coming in every day, being a professional, taking care of his body, being a leader — I’m proud to be able to share this moment with a veteran, a mentor, a brother, a guy like Al Horford, man.”Horford was emotional after the Celtics beat the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals, allowing him to make his first trip to the N.B.A. finals.Eric Espada/Getty ImagesThe Celtics drafted Brown in 2016, a few weeks before Horford signed a four-year deal with the team. The next summer, Boston selected Tatum No. 3 overall. Smart had been drafted sixth overall in 2014.Horford spent three years with Boston — two with Brown, Tatum and Smart — and the Celtics went to the conference finals twice and lost in the conference semifinals once. He opted out of the last year of his contract in 2019 and joined the 76ers as a free agent.In December 2020, the 76ers traded him to the Oklahoma City Thunder, who hardly used him. In June 2021, Boston traded with the Thunder to get him back.“I do believe everything happens for a reason,” Horford said. “This was a time for them to grow and also for me to grow as well. Me getting a different perspective and now appreciating even more what I have here.”When Brad Stevens, the Celtics’ president of basketball operations and the team’s previous head coach, called to tell Horford about the trade, Horford was in a car with his family. They all started screaming with excitement.“I think it kind of feels like home to him,” Anna Horford said of Boston. “This is the first place he’s played where his kids were old enough to be aware of being at games. Ean was just a baby in Atlanta. Him going to school here, making friends here, his other kids as well. This was the first place that really felt like home as an entire family.”Home is a particularly meaningful concept to someone as transient as Horford has been.In Santo Domingo, his mother, Arelis Reynoso, was a sports journalist and occasionally took him on assignment.“I felt like I was really independent from a really young age over there,” Horford said. “It was just very special, that time with my mom.”He moved to Michigan for high school, then went to college at Florida, where he won two national championships with two other players who had notable N.B.A. careers: Joakim Noah and Corey Brewer.The Hawks drafted him third overall in 2007, and he made his first four of his five All-Star teams while playing in Atlanta.Horford said he grew in his two seasons away from the Celtics, when he left for Philadelphia in free agency and then was traded to Oklahoma City.Allison Dinner for The New York TimesThe seeds of his long career were planted there.“I saw his daily habits,” said Kenny Atkinson, who was an assistant coach with the Hawks while Horford played there. “Al is going to be like Nolan Ryan: He’s going to play until he’s 45. He’s so impeccable about it.”Atkinson helped Horford develop a 3-point shooting game, which has also helped lengthen his career in a league that has been phasing out big men who can’t shoot.Atkinson is now an assistant for Golden State. He spoke the day after Horford scored 26 points and made six 3-pointers in Boston’s Game 1 win over Golden State.What does he think about how Horford’s career has persisted?“I hate it,” Atkinson said, deadpan. “But I’m not surprised.”In his return to Boston, Horford tried to share with his younger teammates the habits he’d developed over time. They were more than happy to accept the counsel.“When I see them talk to Al it’s almost like a teacher and a student,” said Juwan Morgan, a third-year forward who signed with Boston just before the end of the regular season. “You can just see the respect factor. When Al talks everybody is just silent, listening because they know it’s for the good of the team.”Horford called it a mutual respect.“Trying to be a good example for them,” Horford said. “Trying to lead them and just help them. They know what I’m about — that I want to play the right way, do things the right way on the court. But also off the court do things the right way as well.”It’s the same language Horford uses when he talks about his younger siblings and the ways that he has mentored them.“To me that’s important to help them in any way so they can thrive in whatever they choose in life,” Horford said.Al Horford, left, with his son, Ean, center, and his father, Tito, who also played in the N.B.A.Allison Dinner for The New York TimesHe seems to be passing that caretaker mentality on to his son.Ean is a gregarious 7-year-old with a head full of curly black hair. He loves basketball and hanging out in the locker room with his father’s co-workers. After Games 1 and 3 of the N.B.A. finals, Al Horford held his hand and brought him to the podium so he could be part of the postgame interview. Ean winked at the camera after Game 1.“He’s a big influence on his sisters,” Al said. “My second, Alia, she’s also more interested now in basketball.”Unlike her brother, Alia, 5, wasn’t allowed to come to Game 3 because the start time, 9 p.m. Eastern, was too late. But she wanted to go so badly she drew a picture of Al, his wife Amelia Vega, and Ean at the game and left it on her father’s bed so he could see when he got home.“This morning I felt bad. I was like, ‘You’ll be at Game 4,’” Al said, laughing. “So that means my third, Ava, she’s going to be at the game too. There’s no way that she can stay back.”Horford sees a lot of himself in his son, particularly in his observational skills and competitive fire.In Ean, he also sees a child who loves the responsibility of being a big brother, loves protecting and teaching his younger siblings. That’s another thing he shares with his father. More

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    Steph Curry’s 43 Points Help Golden State Beat Celtics in NBA Finals

    Golden State desperately needed a win after losing two of the first three games in the N.B.A. finals. Curry’s 43 points on Friday got it done.BOSTON — For two days, Golden State forward Draymond Green saw it in his teammate Stephen Curry. The fire Curry plays with isn’t always apparent to outsiders, but Green sensed that it was simmering within.Their team was down in the N.B.A. finals, 2-1, and Curry was not going to let them lose Game 4.On Friday night everybody else saw that emotion, too.After one of his two first-quarter 3-pointers, Curry screamed into the crowd full of Boston Celtics fans who had showed up early to hound him and his teammates. There was a long way to go in the game, one of the finest of his illustrious career, but he shouted to send a message.“Felt like we just had to let everybody know that we were here tonight,” Curry said.He added: “You can want it so bad, you kind of get in your own way a little bit, and everybody feels a little bit of pressure, and it can go the opposite way. I wanted to try to leverage that in a positive direction for us to start the game.”On Friday night in front of a hostile crowd in Boston, Golden State evened its series with the Celtics, 2-2, and regained home-court advantage. Golden State won, 107-97.Curry scored 43 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, becoming only the third Warriors player to have at least 40 points and 10 rebounds in an N.B.A. finals game; Rick Barry did so in 1967, and Kevin Durant did in 2018. Curry, Michael Jordan and LeBron James are the only players 34 and older to score 40 or more points in an N.B.A. finals game.As Golden State stretched its lead in the final minutes of Game 4, Celtics fans began to leave. When Curry was at the free-throw line with 19.1 seconds left in the game, a chant of “M.V.P.” could be heard in the upper deck of the arena.The series will return to San Francisco for Game 5 on Monday, followed by Game 6 in Boston on Thursday.Curry did it all for Golden State in Game 4. He “put us on his back,” Klay Thompson said.Winslow Townson/Getty ImagesThe crowd heartily booed Golden State’s players, beginning in their pregame warm-ups.When Klay Thompson appeared on the court an hour before the game, a group of fans in the lower bowl booed him. He acknowledged them with his arms and encouraged them to get louder. Green emerged a few minutes later and drew an even louder explosion of boos. Two nights before, Thompson had criticized the crowd for chanting obscenities at Green.The Celtics entered the game with aspirations of handing Golden State its first back-to-back losses in this year’s playoffs. Before Friday’s game, Golden State had won all five games that followed losses this postseason.But Boston understood the fierce grip that a 3-1 lead can hold in a best-of-seven series.“We understand we have a chance to do something special, put some pressure on tonight,” Celtics Coach Ime Udoka said before the game.The Celtics gained confidence from the way they had played in the last game.“We have to replicate what we did in Game 3,” Celtics guard Marcus Smart said on Thursday. “We reduced our turnovers. We reduced our second-chance points, offensive rebounds. We just controlled the game, the game that we wanted to play.”Golden State made a change to its starting lineup for the first time this series in Game 4, replacing Kevon Looney with Otto Porter Jr.The playoffs this season have been characterized by blowouts, and the Celtics have played in several of them, including all three that came during the finals. Boston won Game 1 by 12 points, lost Game 2 by 19 and won Game 3 by 16.But early on, Game 4 showed promise that it could be a tightly contested matchup that would stay interesting until the end.Curry and Boston’s Jayson Tatum each scored 12 points in the first quarter.“Everybody was emotional tonight,” Golden State Coach Steve Kerr said. “Down 2-1, we had to come out with some desperation and more physicality than we showed in Game 3. So it was a team-wide sense of aggression and emotion. That started right from the opening tip.“Steph obviously doesn’t normally show a lot of emotion, but a night like tonight warranted it.”The first quarter ended with Tatum passing the ball into the paint to Robert Williams III, who flicked it out to Grant Williams in the corner for a 3. Grant Williams’s 3 gave Boston a 28-27 lead heading into the second quarter.“Steph obviously doesn’t normally show a lot of emotion,” Golden State Coach Steve Kerr said, “but a night like tonight warranted it.”Elsa/Getty ImagesBy halftime, the lead had changed hands six times and the score had been tied five times.It was Celtics guard Jaylen Brown’s turn to shine in the second quarter. He scored 10 points and Boston outscored Golden State by nine points when he was on the court during that quarter.Boston had stretched its lead slightly by halftime, to 54-49.But Golden State would not go quietly, especially not with Curry available. He had 33 points heading into the fourth quarter, having scored 14 in the third.The game was tied at 86 with eight minutes left.Thompson picked up his fourth foul with 5:33 left in the game. The crowd chanted at him the same obscene chant they had directed at Green in Game 3, but replaced “Draymond” with “Klay.” About one minute later, Thompson’s 3-pointer gave Golden State a 95-94 lead.Boston scored only once in the game’s final five minutes.There was some doubt after Game 3 that Curry would be available for Game 4 because he hurt his foot in a pileup while fighting for a loose ball. Curry participated in Golden State’s shootaround on Friday morning and was cleared to play.After Curry’s performance Friday night, the second-highest scoring finals game of his career, the first question posed to Kerr in the postgame news conference was a cheeky one about how he thought Curry’s foot held up. Kerr laughed.“I think he was really laboring out there,” Kerr quipped. “He really struggled.”Thompson also was asked about Curry first when he took the postgame podium.“The heart on that man is incredible,” Thompson said. “You know, the things he does we kind of take for granted from time to time, but to go out there and put us on his back, I mean, we’ve got to help him out on Monday. Wow.” More

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    Celtics Gain NBA Finals Edge on Golden State With Physical Play

    The Celtics lead the N.B.A. finals, two games to one, in a series that has been defined by size and rebounds more than finesse and flash.BOSTON — After Game 3 of the N.B.A. finals, Boston Celtics center Robert Williams attended his postgame news conference dressed in a T-shirt with the face of the bruising, Hall of Fame player Dennis Rodman printed on it.It was fitting attire after a game in which the Celtics had banged into the Golden State Warriors and sent them skittering across the court, in which they wrested rebounds and loose balls away from them. At times, Golden State looked disheveled and tired when its players smacked into the bigger, more athletic, younger Celtics.“We want to try to impose our will and size in this series,” Celtics Coach Ime Udoka said.Game 3, on Wednesday night, was the first finals game in Boston since 2010, and the Celtics made a statement, playing with edge to earn a 2-1 series lead over Golden State with a 116-100 win. Boston will also host Game 4 on Friday night.It has been a series marked by toughness: The team able to exhibit more of it has been able to win each of the first three games.“If we were going to come out here and play, the last thing when we left that court we didn’t want to say we weren’t physical enough,” Celtics guard Marcus Smart said. “It worked out for us.”Statistically, that physicality manifested itself in several ways Wednesday night.It showed in the rebounding — Boston grabbed 16 more rebounds than Golden State. Williams had 10, as well as four of the Celtics’ seven blocks.“There’s a play early in the fourth, I got by Grant Williams and thought I had daylight to get a shot up, and you underestimate how athletic he was and how much he could bother that shot,” Golden State guard Stephen Curry said.Williams has been inconsistent this series because of a knee injury that has bothered him throughout the playoffs. Williams had surgery on his left knee in March, but aggravated it during the Celtics’ Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Milwaukee Bucks. On Wednesday, he felt good enough to give Boston a lift.“They’ve been killing us on the glass this whole series,” Williams said. “Wanted to just put an emphasis on it.”Golden State guard Stephen Curry, left, was caught under the Celtics’ Al Horford in the fourth quarter of Game 3 of the N.B.A. finals on Wednesday night.Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle, via Associated PressThe Celtics’ physicality also showed in their ability to score inside. They outscored Golden State, 52-26, in the paint.“It was just us being us, just continuing to drive the ball and try to find a great shot for our teammates and ourselves,” Smart said. “This Warrior team does a very good job of helping each other out on their defensive end. They’re going to make you have to make the right play every single time, and if you don’t, they’re going to make you pay.”Although Golden State is known for an offense that can be mesmerizing to watch, it was impressive defensively during its dynastic run from 2015 to 2019. That returned this season — the only team with a better defensive rating than Golden State has been Boston.In the finals, the Celtics have used their size to widen the gap between the two teams.The Celtics won Game 1, 120-108, and showed Golden State’s players they would need to be more physical if they meant to compete.Golden State trailed early in Game 2 as well, and that was the crux of the halftime conversation. The players knew that the only way to match Boston was to match its intensity, despite being smaller at most positions. With that in mind, Golden State outscored Boston, 41-14, in that third quarter and won, 107-88.“There wasn’t a whole lot of strategic change,” Golden State Coach Steve Kerr said after Game 2. “You know, a couple tweaks here and there. The preparation was mostly about our intensity and physicality.”In Game 3, the Celtics reclaimed that edge.“We had to,” Smart said of the physicality with which Boston dominated Golden State. “Game 2, they brought the heat to us. For us, that left a bad taste in our mouth because what we hang our hat on is effort on the defensive end and being a physical team.”Golden State was not able to match it, not for long enough anyway.Golden State has outscored Boston by 43 points in the third quarter this series, and took a lead in Game 3, 83-82, on a 3-pointer by Curry. That basket had followed a quick stretch of 7 points without Boston gaining possession. Curry was fouled shooting a 3-pointer, and since the foul was flagrant, Golden State got the ball back and scored another 3.But as the quarter closed, Golden State’s grip on the game slipped.“Take the hits, keep fighting,” Williams said was the message in the huddle after the third quarter. “Obviously, they’re a great team that goes on runs, a lot of runs, but just withstanding the hit.”Golden State couldn’t get through the defense, nor could it stop the Celtics from grabbing second chances. Hustle plays typically went to Boston.At one point in the fourth quarter, several players tangled over a loose ball, and Smart came up with it before Draymond Green pushed him. It was Green’s sixth foul, and the crowd jeered at him after having spent the evening chanting curses at him.Golden State’s Klay Thompson complained about fans swearing with “children in the crowd.”“Real classy. Good job, Boston,” he said.Green said the chants didn’t bother him. What bothered him more, he said, was that he played “soft.” He was a catalyst for Golden State’s more physical play in Game 2, but he was ineffective in Game 3.He said his final foul came when he was trying to get players off Curry, whom he heard screaming at the bottom of a pile. Curry stayed in the game but said afterward that he had pain in one of his feet.It is among the many bruises Golden State will have to manage after a Game 3 loss that challenged its toughness. The Celtics shoved over Golden State’s beautiful brand of basketball, leaving Curry and his teammates searching for ways to get back up. More

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    Boston Celtics Withstand Stephen Curry’s 3-pointers for Game 3 Win

    Golden State’s Curry had 31 points, including six 3-pointers, but Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart and Jayson Tatum had big games of their own for Boston.BOSTON — It was only the second quarter, but the Celtics’ Jayson Tatum seemed determined to build on a theme as he eyed an opportunity on Wednesday night. He took a hard dribble at Stephen Curry, spun to his right and drove straight into the lane before depositing a layup over his smaller defender.The Celtics were eager to familiarize themselves with the basket in Game 3 of the N.B.A. finals. So they used their size to bully various members of the Golden State Warriors in the low post and off the dribble. They attempted layups. They dunked. They threw short jumpers off the glass.In the process, Boston even survived one of Golden State’s hallmark third-quarter runs to escape with a 116-100 win at TD Garden and take a 2-1 lead in the series. Game 4 is in Boston on Friday.The Celtics, who opened the fourth quarter by building a healthy cushion, were led by Jaylen Brown, who had 27 points and 9 rebounds. Tatum added 26 points, 9 assists and 6 rebounds, and Marcus Smart finished with 24 points. Curry had 31 points in the loss, and Klay Thompson added 25. The Celtics did most of their damage in the paint, where they outscored Golden State, 52-26.After the first two games were in San Francisco, the series swung to Boston, a fitting site for the finals as the league celebrates the last few flickering embers of its 75th anniversary. The Celtics are chasing their 18th championship, while Golden State is making its sixth finals appearance in eight seasons.Two of the league’s original franchises, the Celtics and the Warriors now mirror each other in another important way: Both rosters were largely constructed through drafting. And while Boston is making its first finals appearance since 2010, Celtics Coach Ime Udoka said he hoped to emulate Golden State’s long-term success.“It’s a model for what we want to do here,” Udoka said.The Celtics, who lost Game 2 on Sunday, have not lost consecutive games this postseason. Before Wednesday’s game, Udoka cited his team’s resilience.“I think we put it behind us pretty quickly,” he said, “and kind of attacked the areas that we did poorly and tried to improve on those.”The Celtics’ Robert Williams III blocking Stephen Curry’s floater. Williams had 8 points, 10 rebounds, 3 steals and 4 blocks.Paul Rutherford/USA Today Sports, via ReutersAbout an hour and a half before the start of Game 3, as some of Golden State’s players made their way onto the court for individual warm-up work, the reserve guard Gary Payton II noticed that one of the rims seemed a bit off. He was right: It was about two inches too high.“It happens every once in a while,” Golden State Coach Steve Kerr said before the game. “Players have a really sharp eye for that.”The rim was soon lowered to its proper 10-foot height, but it did not seem to help. Golden State got off to a brutal start, missing 11 of its first 15 field-goal attempts as Boston ran out to a 24-9 lead. Making matters worse, Curry picked up two early fouls.If there was concern for the Celtics, it came in the form of Tatum’s right shoulder, which he first injured in the Eastern Conference finals against Miami. On Wednesday, he was grimacing in pain after drawing a foul on an early drive.But his 3-pointer midway through the second quarter pushed the Celtics ahead by 18. Boston shot 57.4 percent from the field to take a 68-56 lead at halftime.All eyes, though, were on the start of the second half. In Games 1 and 2, Golden State had dominated both third quarters, outscoring Boston by a total of 35 points. The third quarter was particularly problematic for the Celtics in Game 2, when they shot 4 of 17 from the field, committed five turnovers and were outscored, 35-14. A close game quickly turned into a rout.On Wednesday, Golden State was trailing by 9 when the team summoned some more third-quarter magic. Curry made a 3-pointer and absorbed contact for good measure when the Celtics’ Al Horford slid underneath him. It was ruled a flagrant-1 foul, which meant Golden State would retain possession after a free throw.Curry sank the free throw, then Otto Porter Jr. buried another 3-pointer for a 7-point possession that trimmed Boston’s lead to 2.It was an anxious moment for the Celtics, who could have folded but instead revealed their toughness once more. Early in the fourth quarter, Smart banked in a 3-pointer. Moments later, Grant Williams corralled an offensive rebound for a put back, forcing Kerr to a call for a timeout as the home crowd roared. More

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    He’s Not That Gary Payton. But He’s Not Not Him Either.

    Gary Payton II has traces of his father’s tenacity on defense, but he’s making his own way through the N.B.A. with Golden State.BOSTON — It’s not uncommon for N.B.A. players to bring their children to interviews and perch the little ones on their laps, or in a seat next to them while they answer questions.Gary Payton, one of the best guards of the 1990s, used to do it during his playing days. In one interview, as he held a young Gary Payton II on his lap, he was asked about his son’s potential future as a basketball player.“I hope he grow up to be what he want to be, but I ain’t going to force him to be a ballplayer or nothing,” Payton said in that video. “But he’s OK. He’s around basketball, he’s throwing the ball and doing everything.”The elder Payton then patted his son on the chest, as the child looked up at him, wide-eyed.Gary Payton II loves seeing images like that. Before a practice with Golden State in Boston this week, he was shown a photo of himself sitting on his father’s lap during another interview and said it was his favorite photo of the two of them.He remembered running around the court during practices when his father was playing for N.B.A. championships. The year the elder Payton first went to the finals with the Seattle SuperSonics, in 1996, his son was 3 1/2 years old, not really old enough to understand the importance of what was happening.Nearly three decades later, Gary Payton II, 29, is playing in the N.B.A. finals, and is a critical part of Golden State’s defense. He made his finals debut in Game 2, returning to the court in an important game for the Warriors, who were trying avoid falling behind two games to none. Payton returned after missing a full month with a broken elbow. In his return, he made clear his importance.“It was amazing,” Payton said. “I was itching to get out there. I was in the tunnel just walking back and forth, pacing, waiting for coach to call me.”The Warriors’ medical staff cleared Payton for Game 1, but Coach Steve Kerr opted not to play him, saying he didn’t think Payton was healthy enough just yet. He would use Payton only if absolutely necessary.“Special circumstances, we need one stop at the end of the game, at the end of a quarter, play him,” Kerr said.Kerr called on Payton with 5 minutes 30 seconds left in the first quarter, and as Payton jogged to the scorer’s table, fans at the Chase Center in San Francisco first reacted with cheers and applause. Eventually, they rose to give him a standing ovation.“I think just the energy that he brings, his character, how hard he plays, especially in the Bay Area, we really accept that and we embrace that,” guard Jordan Poole said. He added: “They just embrace him for the way that he plays and who he is as a person, and he makes it pretty easy to do.”His journey is part of what draws both fans and his teammates toward him. Despite having a father in the Hall of Fame, he needed to make his own path to the N.B.A. He went undrafted in 2016 out of Oregon State and has played for six different G-league teams since then. This season, having seen him play on 10-day contracts at the end of 2020-21, Golden State gave Payton a chance to stick around with a one-year contract.Gary Payton II said he focuses on defense not to be like his father, but so that he can get the ball to score.Thearon W. Henderson/Getty ImagesWith Golden State working its way back into contending form, Payton made his presence felt as a defender throughout the season. He started 16 regular-season games, and the first two games of the Western Conference semifinals against Memphis.In Game 2 of that series, Payton broke his elbow when Grizzlies guard Dillon Brooks swiped him across the head while he was midair. The foul was deemed a flagrant 2, triggering an automatic ejection for Books. Kerr called the play “dirty.”But since Payton had an upper-body injury, he was able to stay in shape and work on his conditioning even as his elbow healed.“I wasn’t off the court but probably for a week or so to let everything heal, then I got back, get on the bike, running, doing hydro work, stuff like that,” Payton said. “My conditioning was still up to par. In game still a little different. The other night, first couple minutes I caught my second breath and I was fine after that.”He played 25 minutes in his first finals game, and scored 7 points. Despite some concern about his shooting ability, he made all three shots he took, including a 3-pointer.“I thought he was brilliant,” Kerr said. “The level of defense, physicality and speed in transition, it gives us a huge boost.”Payton’s father was also known for his defensive prowess — he was one of the rare guards to be named the defensive player of the year, in 1995-96 — but the younger Payton said that wasn’t why he learned to focus on defense rather than offense.Gary Payton wore a shirt with an illustration of his son Gary Payton II guarding him, in a Seattle SuperSonics uniform.Jed Jacobsohn/Associated Press“It was the only way I could get the ball and make a play on the offensive end,” Payton said. “I had to get the ball, steal it or whatnot to go score.”His father comes to the games to support him. He even wore a shirt to Game 2 with an illustration of his son guarding him. This wasn’t a career the elder Payton, 53, pushed his son toward, and basketball advice isn’t part of their relationship now — no tips on being in the finals, and no questions about what it might be like.“It’s just me and Gary. It’s our relationship,” Gary Payton II said. “There was a moment in time where he stopped talking to me about basketball. I think that’s because I was doing a lot better than before.“Nowadays he really doesn’t say anything. We just talk about life, family, other sports and whatnot. But he stopped talking about basketball, so I think I’m doing a pretty good job.” More

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    These Are Not Larry Bird’s Celtics. And That’s Just Fine.

    Trips down memory lane have grown harder as Celtics greats pass away. But the new generation is carving a memorable path of its own.When Bill Walton revived and concluded his N.B.A. career with the Boston Celtics, he devised a plan on game nights to beat the city’s notoriously gridlocked traffic: He rode the subway to work.Picture a towering, unmistakable redhead, 6-foot-11, boarding the T, as it is known in Boston, at the Harvard station. Walton lived nearby during the Celtics’ 1985-86 championship season, and in 1986-87, when they lost in the N.B.A. finals to the Los Angeles Lakers.“Red Line to the Green Line to the old Garden,” he said. “And with a packed car of crazed fans banging on the walls and ceiling, rocking the car, chanting, ‘Here we go Celtics, here we go!’ ”In a recent telephone interview, Walton added that after six injury-plagued years with the dysfunctional and Donald Sterling-owned Clippers of San Diego and Los Angeles, those rides were neither scary nor a culture shock for a West Coast native.“It was heaven,” he said.Bill Walton playing for the Boston Celtics during the 1986 N.B.A. finals.Associated PressThe old Boston Garden was replaced in 1995 by what is known now as TD Garden. But the bustling North Station commuter hub remains, reached by the T’s trolley cars clanging through tunnels old enough for archaeological digs.So, too, exists the famed parquet playing floor, with a few holdover pieces from the original Garden: the now 23 retired jersey banners, a fair number of ruddy face ushers with Southie accents, and ticket scalpers hiding in plain sight out on Causeway Street.“The new place doesn’t have the sightlines and overhang from the second tier, where we called the games from and had, in some ways, a better view than courtside,” said Marv Albert, the Hall of Fame broadcaster whose radio debut — Knicks at Celtics, Jan. 27, 1963 — was in Boston, subbing for Marty Glickman, at age 21.He added: “The TD Garden is not a very glamorous arena, like what the Warriors built in San Francisco. And with the surrounding area and the Celtics’ history, there is still an old-time feel to it.”To that end, when the N.B.A. finals return to Boston for the first time since 2010 — with the aforementioned Golden State Warriors hitting town for Game 3 Wednesday night — it will be the league’s version of strolling the somewhat gentrified but still old neighborhood, making the nostalgic rounds of where it grew up.It wasn’t until years after the Bill Russell-era Celtics won 11 titles from 1957 through 1969 that professional basketball became a hot ticket in Boston, or anywhere in the United States, much less a sexy global sell. But it was largely at North Station, that nexus of unwieldy urban design, that the N.B.A. progressed from crawl to walk.Bill Russell, left, was congratulated by Coach Red Auerbach after scoring his 10,000th career point, against the Baltimore Bullets in Boston Garden.Bill Chaplis/Associated PressIt has been a rough few years, the losses of the Retired Number Celtics painful and profound for those who remain from Boston’s unmatchable dynastic period. John Havlicek, No. 17, died in 2019; K.C. Jones (25), and Tom Heinsohn (15) passed in 2020; Sam Jones (24) in 2021; Jo Jo White (10), a 1970s star on two title teams, in 2018.Still, Dan Shaughnessy, the venerable Boston Globe columnist, checked in recently with Bob Cousy (No. 14), who told him, “To have this happen at the age of 93 is really a special moment.” He meant the Celtics’ 22nd championship series, of which they’ve won 17, deadlocked with the Lakers franchise that originated in Minneapolis.No awe-struck neophyte, Shaughnessy was nonetheless moved by the trophy presentations after the Celtics’ narrow escape from Miami in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals. There was Cedric Maxwell, a Celtics broadcaster and retired No. 31, handing the conference championship trophy, named for Cousy, to the veteran forward Al Horford. Then, Maxwell passed the new conference most valuable player trophy, named for Larry Bird, over to the Celtics’ ascendant star, Jayson Tatum.“Where else do you get that?” Shaughnessy said before answering his question. “The Yankees in baseball.”For a generation of sports journalists too young to have covered the Celtics’ patriarch Red Auerbach’s lighting of victory cigars from his coaching perch, the 1980s Bird-era Celtics were our introduction to live Celtics lore.In chairs fit for third-graders along the baselines, we watched the Lakers and Celtics dramatically raise the league’s profile through the lens of the rivalry between Magic Johnson and Bird. Reporters from out of town slept in a new chain hotel at Copley Square, awakened by earsplitting alarms one early June morning that we swore were the devious work of Auerbach — because the Lakers stayed there, too.We cringed as jubilant fans rushed the court after the Celtics won Game 7 of the 1984 finals and wondered if Bird and company — not to mention the Lakers — would get out alive. We risked being suffocated or crushed in horribly ventilated visitors’ locker rooms that were no match for the growing news media mob.Fans on the court after the 1984 finals.Icon Sportswire via AP ImagesWe walked out, exhausted from the building’s oppressive late-spring humidity, dodging the occasional rat, still thinking there was no place else we would rather be.Walton’s memories of all being on board the clanging T notwithstanding, those Celtics did not represent all of Boston. Through the massive good fortune of landing Bird (retired No. 33) in the college draft and smartly trading for the rights to Kevin McHale (32), but also by stocking their bench with fringe white players, the Celtics were perceived as the reputed holdout in a league increasingly dominated by African American talent. Black neighborhoods in Boston preferred their rivals, Julius Erving’s Philadelphia 76ers or Johnson’s Lakers.But the Celtics, whose principal talent, at least, has for years been predominately Black, played this season to 100-percent home capacity. The fan base in Boston is presumably finding this team of throwback bruising defenders all the more relatable and is more united than ever — though visiting players of color may argue that it is merely mega-partisan, not postracial.There is always temptation to overstate comparisons to champions of yore, especially when remembering that the Celtics have won exactly one championship since 1986. But some have pointed out that the rugged point guard Marcus Smart evokes memories of K.C. Jones and Bird’s 1980s running mate, Dennis Johnson (retired No. 3). And while Tatum may never be Bird in the collective mind of the Boston masses, he, at 24, appears destined to have his number, 0, join Robert Parish’s 00 in the rafters.After all, it took one title, in 2008, for Kevin Garnett (retired No. 5) and Paul Pierce (34) to make it.The current center, Robert Williams III, is no Russell (retired No. 6), but he, at 24, is a genuine, homegrown rim protector. Horford, who plays in the image of the 1970s glue guy Paul Silas, was reacquired last off-season, the kind of canny team-building addition the Celtics were known for across four decades of winning multiple titles.The jersey No. 3 of Dennis Johnson of the Boston Celtics was lifted to the rafters during his jersey retirement ceremony in 1991.Lou Capozzola/NBAE via Getty ImagesHaving lost the one premier player they signed, Gordon Hayward, to free agency in 2020, and Kyrie Irving, the best player they traded for, also to free agency, in 2019, these Celtics were more or less put together no differently from any Auerbach team. Danny Ainge, the former general manager, did the heavy lifting with much help from the Nets, whose draft picks heisted in a 2013 trade for the fading Pierce and Garnett brought Tatum and his co-star, Jaylen Brown.So, too, are the current Warriors constructed without the benefit of a boutique free agent, after the 2019 departure of Kevin Durant. This series is a welcome variation on the theme of willful stars determining competitive balance, a wielding of leverage that has turned off some fans and that some people have come to see as harmful to the league.These Celtics of course play in the same 3-point shooting universe that’s been stylistically expanded by Golden State’s Stephen Curry more than anyone, another trend found objectionable by many older fans. And TD Garden is no different from other N.B.A. arenas with upgraded culinary delights and the standard in-game experience of floor-show gimmickry and nonstop noise that once made Auerbach’s head and cigar explode.Walton would rather remember the fans reaching a frenzied state on their own, en route on the Green Line. From his home in San Diego, he said, “Knowing Boston, I’m pretty sure nothing has changed.” More

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    Klay Thompson’s Fix for His Shooting Woes? Unearthing His Alter Ego.

    The Golden State guard has turned to highlights of himself at his peak — in the mode of “Game 6 Klay” — to help emerge from a shooting slump in the N.B.A. finals.BOSTON — Klay Thompson might as well have spent Game 2 of the N.B.A. finals on Sunday launching the ball straight into swirling winds. His field-goal attempts veered left and right, fell short and carried long.Afterward, knowing Golden State would need him to be more productive as its series with the Celtics continued, Thompson sought to remind himself that he was good at basketball. So he fired up a laptop and watched old clips of a familiar figure: himself.“I remember being in college,” he said, “and when you’d go through a shooting slump, the video guys would pull up a great game when everything seemed in unison, and your body was working so well that the ball was just flowing off your fingertips.”All Thompson needed to do, he said, was search for “Game 6 Klay” on YouTube, and various high-profile reminders of his long-range acumen were readily available to him. Most recently, he scored 30 points and made 8 of 14 3-point attempts in Golden State’s Game 6 win over the Memphis Grizzlies last month to close out their Western Conference semifinal series. He also famously scored 41 points, in a performance that included making 11 of his 18 3-pointers, in 2016 in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder.“There were some very high-pressurized situations I was in, and I ended up shooting the ball well,” he said. “When you can do it when your back is against the wall, you can do it at any given moment. It’s just about keeping that mental strong.”Thompson was just 1 of 8 from 3-point range during Game 2 of the N.B.A. finals. His career regular-season 3-point percentage is 41.7.Ezra Shaw/Getty ImagesIf nothing else, Thompson is familiar with keeping, as he put it, that mental strong. His celebrated comeback after missing two full seasons because of injuries has culminated in another trip to the finals, his sixth with Golden State. But he was clearly disappointed with his effort in Game 2 against Boston, as he shot 4 of 19 from the field and finished with 11 points. On the bright side, he said, the Warriors drubbed the Celtics to tie the series ahead of Game 3 on Wednesday night in Boston.“It feels good going 4 for 19 and winning by 20,” said Thompson, referring to Golden State’s 107-88 win. “I’d rather do that than go 13 for 19 and lose by 10. Been there, and that’s never fun.”On Tuesday, Thompson arrived for his news conference wearing one sneaker while he worked to fit the other with an insole. He was, in his own way, a work in progress, and that has been the case since January, when he was finally back in uniform after a 941-day absence. In 32 regular-season games, he shot a career-low 38.5 percent from 3-point range, but he offered flashes of his familiar greatness, and his mere presence on the perimeter helped create more space for teammates like Stephen Curry.It has been more of the same for Thompson in the playoffs: some good, some great, some bad. His inconsistency should not be surprising given how long he was gone. His left knee and his right Achilles’ tendon are surgically repaired, so there were always going to be ups and downs as he sought to regain his rhythm and his conditioning. His teammates do not seem concerned.“If you saw him now, you’d think he’s averaging 50 in this series,” Curry said. “He’s got a very confident look about him. That’s the best thing about him. It’s all about the work you put in. It’s about the mind-set.”On Sunday, Thompson had a bit of a different look. He missed 9 of his first 10 field-goal attempts before he made a 3-pointer early in the third quarter that put Golden State ahead, 59-52. He pumped his fists, but was soon muttering to himself and shaking his head.“When I watched the film, I probably seemed a little rushed,” he said. “I wasn’t underneath my shot.”Even as the score grew more lopsided, Golden State Coach Steve Kerr left Thompson in the game against Boston’s reserves. But rather than unearth some confidence, Thompson missed his final four shots.“I think he’s just pressing a little bit,” Kerr said. “He just wants so badly to do well that he’s taking some bad ones. I’m not particularly concerned about it because this isn’t the first time it’s happened. Klay has a way of responding to mini-slumps or whatever you want to call them.”Thompson thought back to this year’s Western Conference finals against the Dallas Mavericks. Over the first four games of the series, he shot just 29.2 percent from 3-point range. In Game 5, he scored 32 points and shot 8 of 16 from 3-point range to help eliminate Dallas.“I stuck to the process,” he said, “and eventually I blew the lid off.”Ahead of Wednesday’s game against Boston, Kerr said a point of emphasis would be to make sure that Thompson got some good looks early that were in rhythm.As for Thompson’s film study — which he apparently tries to be discreet about — Golden State’s Draymond Green said he had not caught Thompson watching old clips of himself on YouTube.“The reality is, if I did, we’d probably make fun of him,” Green said. “So it’s probably good that I haven’t.”To be fair, Thompson does not have much trouble staying grounded on his own. On Tuesday, he recalled where he was about a year ago: working out in an empty arena with Rick Celebrini, the team’s director of sports medicine and performance.“To be back here on this stage,” Thompson said, “you’ve just got to remind yourself to keep working because it’s a blessing and really an honor to be here.” More