Warriors Respond in Game 2 With a Blowout Victory
After a disappointing performance in Game One — the Warriors showed their veteran experience and responded with a 19 point victory in Game Two.
Warriors superstar Stephen Curry led the way with 29 points, six rebounds and four assists. Warriors guard Jordan Poole stepped up with 17 points of his own and with a well-balanced attack from the Warriors — the Warriors were able to tie the series one game apiece.
“Our offense is always a lot of Steph [Curry],” Warriors forward Draymond Green said. “ When [Kevin Durant] was here, our offense still started with Steph [Curry]. When you’re playing against a team like that — you have to get offense from other places.”
From the opening tip — it was clear that the Warriors paid attention during their film session as Green immediately pressured Celtics center Al Horford on the perimeter. Horford — who had the biggest game of his career in Game One — went back down to earth with only two points.
Celtics guard Derrick White was the only one who had any sort of output in Game Two with 12 points — but was inefficient as he went 4-for-12 from the field. Celtics guard Marcus Smart was limited as well and was a -12 throughout the game. The trio of Horford, Smart and White added 65 points in Game One — but only had 16 points to show for in Game Two.
“We didn’t turn the ball over,” Green said. “I thought that was very important in this game. Keeping [the Celtics] out of transition and making them play against our defense.”
The Celtics came out firing to start the game — going on an 8-0 run. After applying a drop-coverage on Curry throughout the first three quarters of Game One, the Celtics adjusted their strategy and hedged on every pick-and-roll action early and dared anyone else to make a play.
Curry got his first basket late in the first quarter — and that’s right around the time where the Celtics started too cool off. After going five-for-five to start the game — the Celtics went on a cold spell and would go zero-for-seven.
Warriors guard Gary Payton II made his return midway through the first quarter. With Payton’s return, Head Coach Steve Kerr went to an interesting lineup throughout the game that found success with enough defensive and athletic wings and scoring ability to offset any Celtics comeback.
The lineup featured Payton, Curry, Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins, forward Otto Porter Jr., and Green. Payton and Wiggins were the defensive anchors while Curry and Porter Jr. heralded the offense.
“[Payton] was doing intense on-court workouts including defensive slides, one-on-one full court, and other drills which didn’t require his left arm from as far back as three weeks ago,” Kerr said.
Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum would keep his team in the game by answering a Warriors 7-0 run with a 3-pointer of his own midway through the second quarter. The Warriors knew that after Tatum’s lackluster shooting performance in Game One — he would not have another quiet game.
Though Tatum dropped 28 points on 8-for-19 shooting and went six-for-nine from 3-point range — Tatum’s heavy isolation game made him inefficient. In the play-by-play era — Tatum’s -36 is the worst +/- by any player in the NBA Finals.
In the third quarter, the Warriors gained momentum when they continued to pressure the Celtics into turnovers. The Warriors had scored 18 points off turnovers — which proved to be the difference in the game.
“It’s simple — we just gotta take care of the ball,” Tatum said. “We’ve done it, we’re a really good team when we take care of the ball [but] we have those lapses where [the] snowball effect [would] pile on turnovers and [we would] dig ourselves into a hole.”
Interestingly — one offensive adjustment Kerr made in the third quarter was to give Curry more pick-and-roll opportunities rather than going with their signature read-and-react organic offense. This got Curry going — as Curry nailed a ridiculous 3-pointer from the hash-mark and increased the Warriors lead to 79-62.
Poole would get in the act as well with the same pick-and-roll actions. As the third quarter came to a close — Poole launched a half-court bomb that dropped cleanly through the net — increasing the Warriors lead to 87-64.
“We shoot halfcourt shots every practice and shootaround,” Curry said. “We have a little competition going. If you make one during the game, we count it. So, he took the lead tonight.”
The Warriors never looked back as they completed their wire-to-wire victory. The Warriors outscored the Celtics 35-14 in the third quarter — which would be their best point-differential in franchise history in NBA Finals games.
The scene shifts to Boston, Mass. for Game Three on Wednesday, June 8.
(Photo credit: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)