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

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      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

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

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      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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      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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      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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      Boston Celtics Beat Miami Heat in Game 7 for Trip to N.B.A. Finals

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      The Celtics led by 15 after the first quarter. Miami’s Jimmy Butler fueled the Heat’s comeback attempt, but it wasn’t enough.Follow our live coverage of the 2022 N.B.A. Finals between Golden State and the Boston Celtics.MIAMI — For the Boston Celtics, winning the Eastern Conference finals is nothing new. Making it to the N.B.A. finals, which the franchise has now done 22 times, is nothing to celebrate much. The Celtics don’t hang those banners, they like to say. There isn’t room among the 17 in the rafters for winning N.B.A. championships.But it was new for the players who made this Eastern Conference championship happen.A pair of stars in their mid-20s, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, had each made it to the conference finals multiple times, but no further until Sunday. The Celtics beat the Miami Heat, 100-96, in Game 7 to win the East and will face Golden State in the N.B.A. finals starting Thursday in San Francisco. A 15-year N.B.A. veteran in Al Horford will make his first finals appearance, with Boston. Marcus Smart, a 28-year-old defensive stalwart, is in his eighth season with the Celtics. They bounced around, bumped chests, hugged each other and screamed.“Obviously, we know we want to win a championship, right,” Tatum said, “but to get over this hump in the fashion that we did it, obviously, we took the toughest route possible. And then to win a Game 7 to go to a championship on the road is special.”More than four months into a remarkable turnaround, the Celtics seem determined to keep it going. Behind Tatum and Brown, Boston defeated the Heat on Sunday for a 4-3 series victory. Tatum was named the most valuable player of the Eastern Conference finals, a new honor this season. The trophy is named for the Celtics icon Larry Bird.The Warriors, who are trying to resuscitate a dynasty that had been on hiatus, are pursuing their fourth championship in eight seasons. Golden State, the third seed in the Western Conference, will have home-court advantage over Boston, a second seed, because it had a better regular-season record, winning 53 games to Boston’s 51.The Celtics won their last title in 2008, back when many of the best players on this year’s roster were elementary school students.Under Ime Udoka, their first-year coach, the Celtics have already engineered a comeback story to remember. It was not until late January that they figured out how to defend, share the ball and win with any semblance of consistency.In the postseason, the Celtics have eliminated a smorgasbord of N.B.A. luminaries and would-be contenders: the Nets, led by Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, in the first round; the reigning champions, the Milwaukee Bucks, in the conference semifinals; and, now, the top-seeded Heat, who, in Game 7, could not match the desperation with which they played Game 6 when they first faced elimination.All this after the Celtics had filled the first couple of months of the regular season with some of the most unappetizing basketball on the East Coast. Forget about contending for a championship: Could they even make the playoffs? They appeared in rigorous pursuit of rock bottom.Miami’s Jimmy Butler had 35 points and 9 rebounds in Game 7. He played all 48 minutes.Eric Espada/Getty ImagesThe Celtics began to plumb the depths early, in November, when a loss to the Chicago Bulls dropped their record to 2-5 and Smart used his platform after the game to rip Tatum and Brown for hogging the ball.“We were tested,” Brown said Sunday night. “We’ve been through a lot. We’ve learned a lot over the years, and now the stage is at its brightest. We’ve got to apply everything that we’ve learned into these moments.”By mid-January, a loss to Philadelphia had the Celtics at 21-22, and Joel Embiid, the 76ers’ star center, described Boston as an “iso-heavy team” that was easy to defend.Even some of Udoka’s oldest friends were questioning whether he could unlock the team’s potential. Kendrick Williams, a youth coach who helped Udoka launch an Amateur Athletic Union team in 2006, when Udoka was still patrolling N.B.A. courts as a power forward, recalled reaching out to him via text message when the Celtics were struggling.“And he was like: ‘Man, you know I’m not panicking. You know we’re going to get it right,’” Williams said. “He was so confident, it put me at ease.”From the start of training camp — and even during his introductory news conference last summer — Udoka emphasized the importance of ball movement. It remained one of the staples of his film sessions as the Celtics labored with growing pains, and it was a message that eventually took root.Tatum was Boston’s leading scorer in Game 7.Eric Espada/Getty Images“You start to realize how hard it is to win,” Tatum said. “You start to question yourself: Are you good enough to be that guy? But I think you just trust in yourself, trust in the work that you put in to get to this point and continue to work, and it can’t rain forever. Good days were coming.”Before the Celtics faced the 76ers again in the middle of February, Udoka reminded his players of Embiid’s remarks. The Celtics went out and beat Philadelphia by 48 points for their ninth straight win.But that was only one part of the Celtics’ winning formula. Led by Smart, who won the N.B.A.’s Defensive Player of the Year Award, the Celtics emerged as a ferocious group of defenders, their lineup bolstered by a pair of midseason acquisitions: Derrick White, a guard from the San Antonio Spurs, and Daniel Theis, a defense-minded center from the Houston Rockets who had started his career in Boston.After winning 28 of their final 35 games to close out the regular season, the Celtics pulverized the Nets with a four-game sweep in the first round of the playoffs. Even before the series ended, Irving was telling reporters that the Celtics’ window was “now.” After the sweep was complete, Durant predicted that Boston had a chance “to do some big things.”Boston and Miami traded wins over the first four games of the conference finals, then the Celtics became the first to string together two victories. Miami shot 33.3 percent in Game 4, then 31.9 percent in Game 5 — both lopsided defeats.Jaylen Brown had 24 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists in Game 7. Andy Lyons/Getty ImagesAt that point at least one Golden State player believed he knew how the Eastern Conference finals would end. After Golden State beat Dallas in the Western Conference finals on Thursday, forward Draymond Green said during an appearance on TNT’s postgame show that he expected to play the Celtics in the N.B.A. finals.Instead, the Heat, and Butler in particular, refused to concede.With their season on the line in Game 6, Butler scored 47 points on the road in Boston, forcing a winner-takes-all Game 7 in Miami.Boston opened Game 7 on a 9-1 run, and Miami spent the rest of the game trying to catch up.After one quarter, the Celtics led by 15 points, and had held Miami to 17 points, 6 of them by Butler. When the Heat pushed back, it was largely because of him. He scored 18 points in the second quarter and helped the Heat cut their deficit to just 6 at halftime.They got even closer at the start of the fourth, when two quick Heat baskets made the score 82-79. But then Boston’s defense forced Miami to go nearly five minutes of playing time without scoring.Butler played in every second of the decisive game and gave the Heat one final chance. With 16.6 seconds remaining in the game, and Boston up by 2, Butler pulled up for a 3-pointer. Having fallen victim to Butler’s heroics in the past, the Celtics held their breath.“I was like, ‘Man, what the hell,’” Brown said.“Not again,” Smart said he thought in that moment.Butler’s shot didn’t fall. He finished the game with 35 points.Had the Heat won, it would have been the second time in the three years since Butler came to Miami that the Heat had made the N.B.A. finals. Butler said after the game that he didn’t know he had played all 48 minutes.“I feel like with every second I did play, I should have done more, could’ve done better to turn this into a win,” he said.Tatum holds up the trophy for being named the most valuable player of the Eastern Conference finals. Eric Espada/Getty ImagesBoston’s Al Horford and teammates celebrate after beating the Heat in Game 7. Horford has not played in the N.B.A. finals in his 15-year career.Jim Rassol/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThe Celtics’ players and coaches ran toward each other as the final buzzer sounded, then swirled around the middle of the court jubilantly.Horford fell to his knees and hit the ground with his hands.“I didn’t know how to act,” he said later, then turned to Brown, 10 years his junior, and giggled.The Celtics fans who remained in the crowd made their way to the lower bowl for the muted conference championship celebration that always comes when a team wins it on the road. Chants of “let’s go Celtics” rang out in the emptying arena, sometimes with players on the court acting like orchestra conductors directing the chorus.Tatum cradled his Larry Bird trophy and lifted it in the air as he walked toward the tunnel off the court, while fans reached to try to touch it.“You can’t help but smile and enjoy the moment out there on the court,” Udoka said. “It’s kind of forced upon you, seeing the joy with the players. And it’s all about those guys.”He had already started thinking about what awaited them in San Francisco. More