The Golden State Warriors squandered a 16 point first half lead before dominating the fourth quarter en route to a 104-94 game five win over the Boston Celtics. The Warriors lead the NBA Finals 3-2, and can clinch their fourth title in the past eight seasons with a victory on Thursday night in Boston. During the fourth quarter, ABC's Mike Breen praised Golden State's "championship DNA," but Jeff Van Gundy correctly responded that Golden State's best player by far in game five was Andrew Wiggins, who has no championship experience and little playoff experience. Wiggins scored a team-high 26 points on 12-23 field goal shooting, and he grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds while also playing excellent defense against Boston's All-NBA First Team forward Jayson Tatum. Wiggins had 10 points on 5-6 field goal shooting plus five rebounds in the fourth quarter alone.
Klay Thompson added 21 points on 7-14 field goal shooting. As has often been the case during Golden State's NBA Finals appearances, Stephen Curry was not the best (or second best) player on the court. Curry finished with 16 points on 7-22 field goal shooting. He had a game-high eight assists and just one turnover, but Curry did not make a three pointer for the first time in his playoff career, and if commentators are going to wax poetic about Curry's all-time greatness based on his excellent game four performance then they also have to note that Curry's game five performance was reminiscent of James Harden's frequent meltdowns in crucial playoff games.
It is indisputable that Curry is a great player. Nothing that I have seen in this series convinces me that Curry is even close to top 15 all-time status, but you can be sure that if the Warriors win this series that narrative will dominate the post-series conversations in many quarters.
Without Wiggins leading the way and without Thompson performing well, the Warriors would be facing elimination in game six--and please don't talk about Curry's "gravity" being the reason for Wiggins' great performance: Wiggins created his own offense with strong drives, superior athleticism, and excellent shooting touch.
Gary Payton II (15 points on 6-8 field goal shooting, five rebounds, three steals) and Jordan Poole (14 points on 4-8 field goal shooting in just 14 minutes) made key contributions off of the bench. Payton is primarily a defensive player, but he provided timely scoring in this game; Poole is primarily a scorer who has been relentlessly "hunted" by the Celtics because of his subpar defense--which is why his minutes have been slashed--but his point per minute production in limited playing time was much needed.
Draymond Green had his usual "triple single": eight points, eight rebounds, six assists. He fouled out in 35 minutes, and he had more complaints to the officials than made field goals (three) by a wide margin. Green contributed to Golden State's excellent defensive performance, but he is the quintessential example of a good player who is along for the ride while superior players do most of the work as opposed to being an all-time great future Hall of Famer.
Jayson Tatum led the Celtics in scoring (27 points on 10-20 field goal shooting), rebounds (10), and assists (four, tied with Jaylen Brown) in 44 minutes. It cannot be said that Tatum played poorly, but if you watched the game then you also felt like somehow a player with his skill set, size, and athletic ability should have done even more. Maybe that is not fair because he did not get much help from his teammates, but if Tatum's goal is to be a perennial All-NBA First Team member--let alone an MVP and a champion--then that is the standard: if your team did not win then you did not do enough.
Marcus Smart scored 20 points on 7-15 field goal shooting, but has there ever been a Defensive Player of the Year who flops more often and gets beat more often by falling asleep on inbound plays/backdoor cuts? He is a very good player, but he is also frustrating to watch at times. Jaylen Brown is usually consistent if not always spectacular, but he had just 18 points on 5-18 field goal shooting. His nine rebounds and four assists were somewhat offset by his game-high five turnovers, a number that nearly matched Golden State's team total (seven turnovers). Al Horford has had some big moments in the 2022 playoffs, but he had a game-worst -19 plus/minus number after scoring nine points and grabbing nine rebounds.
The only Boston starter who had a positive plus/minus number was Robert Williams II (+11), who had 10 points and eight rebounds in 30 minutes. His energy and athleticism are very impactful. One suspects that if he were fully healthy then he would be playing closer to 40 minutes.
The Warriors played excellent defense, outscored the bigger Celtics in the paint 50-36, and were only outrebounded 47-39. Golden State deserves credit to some extent for putting pressure on Boston, but the Celtics made a lot of unforced errors, throwing away a winnable game by missing too many free throws (21-31, .667), missing too many layups, and committing too many turnovers (18).
The overreliance on high variance three point shooting inevitably results in play that lacks rhythm and flow. The Celtics missed 12 straight three pointers before later making eight straight three pointers and finishing 11-32 (.344) from beyond the arc. The Warriors shot 9-40 (.225) from three point range, but they survived their horrific outside shooting by--as noted above--winning the possession battle (rebounds, turnovers) and by scoring prolifically in the paint. Commentators love to focus on the Warriors' three point shooting, but this game was a classic example of the extent to which the Warriors have mastered other, more fundamentally important aspects of the game. The difference between the Curry-led Warriors and the Harden-led Rockets is that the Warriors are a complete team that plays defense, rebounds, and scores in the paint, while the Rockets were a team that chucked up a ton of three pointers, hoped for the best, and had no backup plan.
This game had a weird flow. Golden State jumped out to a 24-8 lead, and Boston looked like a team deflated by the game four loss at home. Curry was cold from the start--he had four points on 2-6 field goal shooting in the first quarter--but the Warriors have more talent and depth than Curry's supporters prefer to admit. The Celtics played much better in the second quarter, but still trailed 51-39 at halftime, an ominous position to be in versus a team that is renowned for third quarter scoring explosions. However, in game five the teams switched identities, with the Celtics dominating the third quarter before the Warriors dominated the fourth quarter.
Boston opened the third quarter with a 10-0 run before tying the score at 55 on a Smart three pointer at the 6:55 mark and then taking a 58-55 lead on a Horford three pointer with 6:28 remaining in the period. Neither team led by more than five points for the rest of the third quarter. Poole heaved in a three pointer just before the buzzer ending the third quarter to give Golden State a 75-74 lead heading into the final stanza.
You would not expect a team as resilient as Boston to be demoralized by one last second shot, but the Celtics looked shell-shocked during the fourth quarter as the Warriors scored 10 straight points in just 2:55. The Celtics never found their bearings, scoring 20 points on just 4-15 field goal shooting while committing four turnovers--yes, the Celtics had as many turnovers as field goals made in the most important 12 minutes of the season!
The Celtics have matchup advantages, but their unforced errors plus the Warriors' energy and effort are negating those matchup advantages. Less than a month ago, the Celtics beat the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks in games six and seven, so it is not impossible for the Celtics to win two straight games to take this series, but they have no margin for error now not just on a game to game basis but also on a play to play basis: each squandered possession pushes them closer to the brink of elimination.