The Celtics played their best basketball Wednesday night against the best team in the NBA. The Warriors scored a season low 86 points thanks to a stellar defensive showcase from Boston. It wasn’t just one player for Boston that stepped up. It was a complete team effort with every player making big plays.
Isaiah Thomas led the Celtics with 25 points, by his standards a slow night. What was most impressive about Boston was the contribution of their bench. They outscored Golden State 35-17 from the bench with Kelly Olynyk leading the way with 17. Avery Bradley had high praise for the PF after the game, “To me Kelly Olynyk was the player of the game”.
Their offense was good enough, but their defense was the most impressive part of last night’s contest. They held the Warriors to only 20% from three and holding Steph Curry scoreless in the 4th quarter. The Celtics rebounded from their poor performance at the end of the game against the Clippers. They came up with important takeaways in the final stretch of the game. The Warriors finished the game with 17 turnovers. With the C’s up by 7, Andre Iguodala made an ill-advised pass that was picked off by Bradley and taken for a dunk.
It was impressive to see the Celtics dominate the 4th quarter in the way they did. Finally getting all the moving pieces to work together is the best thing that happened last night. Boston always plays well at Oracle, but they need to show up for every game from now on. Every game needs to have a playoff mentality, and they won’t have a problem getting in that mindset.
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