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      Celtics Gain NBA Finals Edge on Golden State With Physical Play

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      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

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

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      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.

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      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

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      Golden State Beats Boston Celtics in Game 2 of NBA Finals

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      After collapsing in the fourth quarter of Game 1, Golden State turned an early lead in Game 2 into a big-time victory to even the series.SAN FRANCISCO — It was exactly the kind of release the fans at the Chase Center had been seeking — some reason to jump up out of their seats in a delirious celebration of this team they couldn’t believe had lost Game 1.It happened at the end of the third quarter. Jordan Poole took a few steps past midcourt, pulled up and launched a 39-foot shot that swished through the net. Poole hopped back the other way on his left foot and raised both his eyebrows while seemingly every Golden State fan leaped to their feet and started screaming with joy and perhaps a little relief.That shot gave the Warriors a 23-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, and finished the Boston Celtics in Game 2 of the N.B.A. finals. Golden State won, 107-88, to tie the series at one game each. Game 3 is Wednesday night in Boston.The Celtics had a habit this postseason of playing well when they had to win and playing with less urgency when they could afford to lose. That worked for them in the first three rounds, but it meant that their second- and third-round series each went to seven games.Boston Coach Ime Udoka addressed that with his team before Game 2 of the finals.“It’s time to be greedy and go for two,” Udoka said.He had also addressed Golden State’s penchant for making big third-quarter runs, a major problem for a Celtics team that had made a habit this season of third-quarter struggles.In Game 1, Boston was able to overcome being outscored by 14 points in the third quarter because it dominated the fourth, outscoring Golden State 40-16.In Game 2, Golden State didn’t allow a recovery. Instead that was when the dam broke.The Warriors outscored the Celtics by 21 points in the third quarter on Sunday, and pushed their lead to 29 early in the fourth.In Game 1, Stephen Curry unleashed a quick barrage of 3-pointers early, scoring 21 points in the first quarter. In Game 2, Curry remained threatening to the Celtics, and scored 29 points, 14 of them in the third quarter.Celtics forward Jayson Tatum temporarily recovered from his Game 1 slump, but was eventually stymied in the third quarter.Tatum shot 3 of 17 from the field in Game 1, and rebuffed suggestions that his shooting may have affected the rest of his game. As for moving beyond the one-game slump, he was confident he would be able to do that.“You don’t let it creep into your mind,” Tatum said before Saturday’s practice. “I can’t do nothing about what happened last game.”He responded by scoring 21 points in the first half of Game 2, making 7 of 16 shots. But he took only two shots from the field in the third quarter, despite playing all 12 minutes.Al Horford, who led the Celtics with 26 points in Game 1, and blew a kiss to the Chase Center crowd when the game ended, took only four shots and scored 2 points in Game 2.The game was close early, and the Celtics even had a 9-point lead at one point in the first quarter. But Golden State never let Boston sustain any lead. Despite 21 points from Tatum and 15 from Jaylen Brown in the first half, Golden State led by 2 at halftime.By early in the fourth quarter, the game was so well in hand that most of Golden State’s starters rested for at least some of the final frame.Streamers and confetti fell from the rafters after time expired, and Curry, who sat for the fourth quarter, looked up at them briefly. He had ensured that the series would return to San Francisco and last at least until a Game 5. More

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      Derrick White’s Celtics’ Run Has His Group Chat Going Crazy

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      There was lots of talk about “beautiful basketball,” said one friend of the Boston Celtics guard, who is competing — improbably — in the N.B.A. finals.SAN FRANCISCO — After his junior season at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, Derrick White knew he needed to have a difficult conversation with Alex Welsh, his best friend and teammate. And Welsh, for his part, knew the conversation was coming, not that that made it any easier.It was the spring of 2015, and Welsh had become acutely aware that White was too good of a player for the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference — at least one opposing coach had begun calling him “the R.M.A.C. LeBron” — and for Division II basketball. It was time for White to transfer in order to play against tougher competition.“I remember when he told me, and it was like he was super nervous,” Welsh said. “And he asked me, ‘Are you mad at me?’ And I was like: ‘No, I’m not mad. But I’m sad!’ ”The N.B.A. finals are cluttered with former lottery picks who long ago seemed bound for greatness. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, two of White’s teammates on the Boston Celtics, were can’t-miss stars coming out of high school. Golden State teammates Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry grew up watching their fathers play in the N.B.A.And there is White, a guard who was overlooked by Division I coaches coming out of high school and was offered only a preferred walk-on spot at U.C.C.S. because the team had run out of scholarships. His college debut was a 27-point loss in front of 211 fans in Winona, Minn., roughly speaking, about a billion miles from the N.B.A.But late bloomers can thrive, even on the glitziest of stages, and with Jay-Z and Barry Bonds sitting courtside, White made an immediate impact in the finals, scoring 21 points off the bench for the Celtics in their Game 1 victory over the Warriors on Thursday night.“He fits in so well with the rest of their personnel,” said Jeff Culver, the coach at U.C.C.S. “He scores when he needs to, and he plays just as well off the ball as he does with the ball.”Ahead of Game 2 on Sunday night, White’s friends from U.C.C.S. reflected on the old days, as White emerged from obscurity to become one of the most decorated Division II players in the country. There were early flashes of brilliance, said Alex Koehler, one of his former teammates.“We always knew he had a shot,” Koehler said. “But I didn’t know he would be this type of player.”White, playing at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs in 2014.University of Colorado Colorado SpringsBefore arriving on campus, White joined several of his future teammates for a game in a pro-am league outside Denver. He showed up with chipmunk cheeks because his wisdom teeth had been removed that morning. He insisted on playing, Welsh said, and wound up scoring about 25 points. One of the referees made a point of getting in touch with Culver to pass along his scouting report.“Hey, your new guy has been the best player in the gym,” the referee told him.Culver needed clarification: Which new guy?“I didn’t know who he was talking about,” he said.Culver had every intention of redshirting White as a freshman so that he could add some bulk to his lanky frame. (He had had a late growth spurt.) Culver even emailed White’s father, Richard, to make sure they were on the same page. Without White, U.C.C.S. played in a preseason exhibition game against Northern Colorado, a Division I program, and got “spanked,” Welsh said. At the same time, it was becoming clear at practice that White was one of the team’s best players. Culver had a quick chat with Jeff Sweet, one of his assistants.“We can’t redshirt this kid,” Culver recalled telling him.By the time U.C.C.S. made the trip to Minnesota for its season opener against Bemidji State University, White was in the starting lineup. A crowd of dozens turned out to watch the Mountain Lions get drubbed. It was not the most auspicious start to a season. White shot 5 of 12 from the field and scored 14 points.U.C.C.S. went on to finish with a 5-21 record, losing seven games by three points or fewer. Many of the team’s narrow losses had a similar feel. White and Welsh would lead the way for 38 minutes, Culver said, then muck up the final two minutes by doing “dumb freshman things.” But their potential was enticing.“We just couldn’t finish,” Welsh said. “We were so young, and we didn’t have any experience, and we would crumble in crunchtime.”Yet, the season set the foundation for White’s rise. As a sophomore, he led the team to a 21-9 record and became the program’s first all-American selection. He christened his junior season by dunking over a newly arrived transfer at the team’s first practice, prompting Culver to blow his whistle — “That’s a wrap!” he yelled — before White could inflict any more psychological trauma on his teammates.“It was like a preview of what was to come,” Welsh said.Koehler recalled trying to defend White at practice that season.“It was a nightmare,” Koehler said. “He could do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted.”During games, Welsh said, he would set “100 ball screens” for White, who would dissect his defenders (plural) in a variety of ways, depending on how they were playing him. He could launch a 3-pointer, or drive to the basket, or find Welsh rolling for an open shot. So many open shots.“He made my life really easy,” Welsh said.Jeff Culver, White’s first college coach, intended to redshirt him his freshman year so he could bulk up, but White proved too talented for the bench.University of Colorado Colorado SpringsAs the Mountain Lions sailed to a 27-6 record, White’s mother, Colleen, supplied the team with freshly baked cookies for its road trips. In the first round of the N.C.A.A. Division II tournament that year, White collected 50 points, 14 rebounds and 8 assists in a win over the Colorado School of Mines.Having outgrown Division II basketball, White left to play his final season of his college eligibility at the University of Colorado Boulder. Welsh felt his absence on the court.“He would draw so much defensive attention,” Welsh said. “I remember texting him after a preseason tournament: ‘Dude, this is so much harder without you.’ ”Transfer rules meant White had to sit out for a season, and he spent months working to add weight. He set alarms on his phone so that he remembered to eat meals at odd hours. White was in attendance when Welsh broke U.C.C.S.’s record for career scoring. After the game, they posed together for a photograph, as White held a sign that Welsh’s family had made for the occasion: “NO. 25 IS MY HERO.”After a standout season at Colorado, White joined the San Antonio Spurs as the 29th pick in the 2017 draft, and soon developed into a rotation player. The Celtics traded for him in February.“Derrick is such a smart basketball player,” Tatum said. “He could fit in anywhere.”White is part of a group chat with eight of his former teammates from U.C.C.S. They sent each other enthusiastic texts during Thursday’s series opener. There was lots of talk about “beautiful basketball,” Koehler said. White was busy during the game, so he responded afterward by thanking his friends — “He usually says something like, ‘Y’all are crazy,’ ” Koehler said — and sending three fist-bump emojis.On Friday morning, he chatted via FaceTime for an hour with Welsh, who asked him about appearing on NBA TV’s postgame show with Shaquille O’Neal, Steve Smith and Grant Hill.“He was mad they put him in a short chair,” Welsh said.Culver said he was hoping to be in Boston for Game 3, while Welsh and his wife, Brooke, are planning to be in Boston for Game 4. Welsh’s dream of a Celtics sweep was still alive after the series opener.“He wants them to win so he can be in the parade,” Culver said.For White, it would be the latest step in an improbable journey. More

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      Why Payton Pritchard Isn’t Too Small for the Celtics’ Big Moments

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      The second-year Boston guard Payton Pritchard is just over six feet tall, which can be a problem on defense. But clutch shooting is his strength.It was one of the more amusing moments of the N.B.A. playoffs.During Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals, the Boston Celtics reserve guard Payton Pritchard drove into the paint against the Miami Heat’s Tyler Herro and hit a short jumper. Pritchard then put one hand near the floor, a common N.B.A. taunt to signify that a defender is too small to guard the taunter.Pritchard is barely over six feet tall and is, in almost all N.B.A. situations, the smallest player on the court. Herro is four inches taller than him.“The game is competitive, so, I mean there’s always going to be a little bickering here and there,” Pritchard deadpanned in a recent interview.Usually, Pritchard is on the receiving end of those gibes.“If you give it out, you’ve got to take it, too,” he said.Pritchard, a second-year guard, has often been considered too small, to the point that at the University of Oregon, he was sometimes mistaken for the team manager.“I go out there and hoop regardless. It doesn’t matter to me,” Pritchard said. “They’ll know my name after the game.”They certainly do now. Pritchard, 24, has had his moments as a scorer off the bench during the playoffs. During Game 1 of the N.B.A. finals against Golden State on Thursday, Pritchard helped spur Boston’s fourth-quarter comeback with 5 points and 4 rebounds in eight minutes. During those eight minutes, the Celtics outscored Golden State by 18 points.His best postseason success was against the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals. Pritchard reached double digits in scoring in three of the first four games. In Game 4, Pritchard scored 14 points, 11 of them in the fourth quarter, extinguishing any hope of a Heat comeback.Boston Coach Ime Udoka has used him sporadically, in part because Pritchard’s size makes him an easy target on defense. In the final three games of the Celtics’ series against the Heat, Pritchard played just 12 minutes combined and didn’t score.He also struggled against the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference semifinals, but in the decisive Game 7, he chipped in 14 points and then delivered another viral moment. In the fourth quarter, Pritchard hit a 3-pointer that put the Celtics up 20. Pritchard turned to Boston’s bench and screamed, “That’s what I do!”Damon Stoudamire, a Celtics assistant coach, knows well what it’s like to be the smallest player on the court. His nickname during a 13-year N.B.A. career was Mighty Mouse because he was under 6 feet tall.“Those type of moments that you catch on camera, nobody really thinks about it,” he said of Pritchard’s 3-pointer against the Bucks. “But man, that’s a lot built up,” he said.He added: “That’s just him showing emotion there for the moment because he’s finally gotten his opportunity. I mean, people forget: He really didn’t play the first half of the season.”The Celtics selected Pritchard, who is from West Linn, Ore., with the 26th pick of the 2020 draft after his four-year college career at Oregon, where he was a first team all-American and helped the program get to the Final Four of the N.C.A.A. tournament.Incidentally, Pritchard was one of the best guards to come out of Oregon since Stoudamire, a Portland native whom Pritchard has known since he was a boy. Like Stoudamire, Pritchard was known for his scoring prowess, shooting ability and supreme confidence.“When I entered the N.B.A., I was the most N.B.A. ready at the time to go in and play right away,” Pritchard said.He had a good rookie year, despite having to play behind more established guards like Marcus Smart, Jeff Teague and Kemba Walker. In 66 games, Pritchard averaged 7.7 points per game and shot 41.1 percent from 3 in 19.2 minutes per game.But this season was bumpy. In the first half, Pritchard was once again buried on the depth chart. When he did play, he couldn’t hit shots. He appeared in 71 of 82 games this season. In the first 49, Pritchard shot just 37.8 percent from the field and was playing only 12.3 minutes a game, down from his rookie year.Some nights, he wouldn’t play at all. He said it was “very frustrating.”Stoudamire described it as “mentally taxing” on Pritchard.“His whole life, he’s been a focal point of most teams,” Stoudamire said. “Now, he can’t even get off the bench. He doesn’t really know why. As a staff, we tried to do our best to talk to him. Like I told him, it really doesn’t have anything to do with you. It’s really just the numbers.”This led to some difficult conversations between Udoka, also an Oregon native, and Pritchard. The two also had a relationship dating back to Pritchard’s youth.Pritchard, right, fights for a rebound during Game 1 of the N.B.A. finals against Golden State.Kyle Terada/USA Today Sports, via Reuters“I asked him at one point if he ever sees me playing here. Am I good enough to play?” Pritchard said. “I believed in myself. I was always good enough. But is this the right fit? He just reassured me, and the trade deadline happened. And then the opportunity came.”Among a flurry of moves at the deadline, the Celtics traded two veteran guards who had been playing ahead of Pritchard — Dennis Schröder and Josh Richardson — and brought back guard Derrick White from the San Antonio Spurs. Suddenly, things began to click for Pritchard.After the All-Star break, he had the best stretch of his career, averaging 9.6 points per game on 50.3 percent shooting in 22 games. He was one of the better 3-point shooters in the league in that period at 47.3 percent. He played well enough that in the playoffs, Udoka has at times trusted him to play crucial minutes in tight games, including against a talented Nets team in the first round and now against Golden State in the finals.If Pritchard is to succeed long term, he will need to find a way to overcome his defensive struggles. Particularly in the Bucks series, Pritchard sometimes found himself in a one-on-one situation with the 6-foot-11 Giannis Antetokounmpo. Improbably, Pritchard would occasionally hold his own. But for now, Pritchard’s shooting is what keeps him on the floor. The vast majority of his shots are 3s. In 19 postseason games, he’s shooting 46.5 percent from the field and 37.7 percent from 3.“Throughout these playoffs, his big games have always been games where we pulled away because of his momentum shots,” Stoudamire said.His emergence — or re-emergence as a shot maker — isn’t surprising to Pritchard. As he might say: It is, after all, what he does. More

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      Celtics Strike First in Finals by Rallying Past Warriors

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      A fourth-quarter rally turned the tide in Game 1 against Golden State, but Boston isn’t celebrating anything just yet.SAN FRANCISCO — The Boston Celtics’ reaction to winning Game 1 of the N.B.A. finals on Thursday night was a marked contrast from the joyous celebration they had held after winning Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals earlier in the week. Instead of chest bumps at midcourt after the final buzzer, the Celtics walked stoically off the court on Thursday, each player stone-faced, some engrossed in conversations with coaches.This stage was supposed to be too big for these Celtics, a team, though not a franchise, that was new to the finals. There were supposed to be jitters once the series started for this band of mostly 20-somethings facing a veteran Golden State Warriors team that has been here plenty of times. Perhaps the Celtics would act as if they had never done this before — because, well, they hadn’t.Yet in their 120-108 victory in Game 1, the Celtics showed no indication that they would shy from the pressure and expectations that come with playing in the finals. They showed an ability to be hit first, and hard, only to recover and prevail anyway.“We’ve been counted out all year,” Celtics guard Marcus Smart said. “Rightfully so. We’ve had moments. But we continue to fight. That’s who we are.”Before Game 1, Celtics Coach Ime Udoka was asked if he thought finals experience was an overrated metric for predicting success in the series. In answering, he noted first that he and others on his staff did have experience in the finals, even if their players did not. But then he dismissed the premise that his team was at a disadvantage even before the series began.“Our young guys have had a lot of success so far getting to the Eastern Conference finals multiple times,” Udoka said. “So for us: Try to simplify it, not overcomplicate it. Business as usual. Basketball as usual. The things we did to be successful coming here, we’ll try to do more of the same.”It was more of the same in many ways.The Celtics endured plenty of dramatic swings during the regular season and, more narrowly, in these playoffs. They struggled at the start of the year, then became the hottest team in the N.B.A. They absorbed blowout losses in the past two rounds of the playoffs, against the Milwaukee Bucks and the Miami Heat, then recovered to deliver blowout wins. Both series went to seven games.So in Game 1, they were confident in their ability to recover from any problem. Udoka acknowledged noticing some early nerves but said he also saw them dissipate as the game progressed. Each time he looked at the score and saw it was close despite his team’s missteps, he took heart.Stephen Curry, for example, scored 21 points in the first quarter, making six of eight 3-point attempts, which set a record for 3-pointers in a quarter in the finals.“I think I found a lot of space obviously in the first quarter and just was trying to ride that wave as long as I could,” Curry said. But Boston made adjustments and Curry didn’t score in the second quarter. He finished with 34 points.Another Boston turnaround came in the second half.In the third quarter, the Warriors outscored the Celtics by 14 points, seeming to pull away and opening a 15-point lead at one point. Golden State is famous for its ability to dominate third quarters on its way to wins, but this time it didn’t work.Boston made defensive adjustments to respond to what they’d seen in the third quarter and held Golden State to just 16 points in the fourth. Their offense suddenly looked unstoppable. The Celtics scored 40 points in the fourth quarter, and, at one point, Boston made seven consecutive threes. Al Horford scored 11 fourth-quarter points and Jaylen Brown scored 10.Stephen Curry dominated the first quarter but the Celtics overturned a 12-point deficit in the fourth.Cary Edmondson/USA Today Sports, via Reuters“The message at the start of the fourth was, we’ve been here before,” Jayson Tatum said. “We know what it takes to overcome a deficit like that.”He added: “We had a lot of time left, right? It wasn’t time to hang your head or be done, it was time to figure it out.”Tatum himself proved an example of Boston’s ability to adapt and adjust in the face of struggles. He shot 3 for 17 in the game, but remained engaged, finishing with more assists (13) than points (12). In the fourth quarter, the Celtics outscored Golden State by 27 points when Tatum was on the court. Despite his poor shooting, he declared himself “ecstatic.”“I had a bad shooting night,” Tatum said. “I just tried to impact the game in other ways. We’re in the championship. We’re in the finals. All I was worried about was trying to get a win, and we did.”Jayson Tatum, left, defending Klay Thompson. Tatum shot 3 for 17 in Game 1 but said he was “ecstatic” after finding other ways to contribute.Darren Yamashita/USA Today Sports, via ReutersBoston swept the Nets in their first-round playoff series, but they were conscious of the fact that in both the conference semifinals against the Bucks and the conference finals against the Heat, they lost Game 1 before winning the series. After opening the finals with a win, they were keen to guard against falling victim to the reverse.Golden State will certainly adjust to what went wrong Thursday night. Their coach, Steve Kerr, has said the challenge of figuring out how to do that is his favorite part about being in the playoffs. A series affords the opportunity to strategize much more than a single game during the regular season.Tatum was playing the long game after Boston’s victory, too. He said the Celtics had shown a tendency in past series for easing their intensity after wins, something they cannot afford to do against Golden State.“This time of the season, you feel great after you win,” Tatum said. “You feel terrible after you lose. You got to just be able to stay mellow, stay balanced, especially this early.“It’s far from over, right? It’s just one game. And we got to be ready for them to respond as if we would if we lost the first game.” More