NBA Hoops

Celtics take Warriors’ best punches and fight back

Celtics take Warriors' best punches and fight back

The Golden State Warriors entered the series opener with 123 combined games of NBA Finals experience to the Boston Celtics’ zero and left with the worst fourth-quarter scoring disparity in this stage’s history.

In between, the Celtics looked lost, staggering from a vintage Stephen Curry heat check in the opening quarter and a classic Golden State landslide in the third, only to find themselves on a 17-0 run that swung Game 1, home-court advantage and potentially the tenor of this championship series in a 120-108 win.

“We’ve been counted out all year. Rightfully so,” Celtics guard Marcus Smart said, following a comeback victory that resembled his team’s remarkable turnaround from a midseason afterthought. “We’ve had moments, but we continue to fight. That’s who we are. Over the last couple months, that’s our identity.”

The revamped Warriors looked like the Warriors of old. Less than three minutes into their night, Curry found Klay Thompson for a transition 3-pointer and didn’t bother to watch it go in. The two-time MVP’s errant last-second heave broke a streak of seven straight makes, including a record six 3-pointers, in a personal 21-point first quarter. Chase Center was rocking, as if it was Oracle Arena hosting LeBron James in 2015.

If ever there was an opportunity to fold following consecutive seven-game series and 4,500 miles logged in the previous three days, it was under the pressure of a three-time champion’s initial flex exceeding its hype.

Where so many have wilted, the Celtics stared down Curry as he plugged into the crowd, electrifying the Bay Area once more, and they let the shock wear off. Between Curry’s fifth and sixth 3-pointers, a Derrick White triple and a Jayson Tatum three-point play kept Boston within 32-28 at the end of the first quarter.

You still couldn’t help but wonder if first-year Celtics head coach Ime Udoka was already searching for answers to start the second quarter, when he rolled out Tatum, Payton Pritchard, Grant Williams, White and…

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