THE Boston Celtics don’t stay down for long in the playoffs.
Jaylen Brown scored 17 of his 27 points in the first quarter and Jayson Tatum finished with 26 points to lift the host Celtics to a 116-100 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) in Game 3 of the NBA finals.
The Celtics grabbed a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series with Game 4 set for Friday (Saturday in Manila) in Boston.
“My message to the team was, ‘We’ve done this after losses. It’s time to do it after wins,’” Celtics coach Ime Udoka said after his team improved to 7-0 after a loss in the playoffs.
Tatum had nine assists and Brown added five to go along with nine rebounds. Boston’s Marcus Smart finished with 24 points after mustering just two in the Celtics’ 107-88 loss in Game 2.
“That left a bad taste in our mouth, coming out of Game 2 hearing and knowing that we got beat up,” Smart said on the NBA TV.
“For us, it’s like anybody else. If you’re in a fight with a bully, you gotta keep going and you gotta stand up. We got the Golden State Warriors who have done this before multiple times who understand what it takes to be here. They want to see what you got. They punched us in our mouths in Game 2, and we responded.”
Al Horford collected 11 points, eight rebounds and six assists for Boston, which held a 47-31 advantage in total rebounds — including 15-6 on the offensive glass.
“We feel like they’ve been killing us on the glass the whole series. We wanted to just put an emphasis on that,” said Robert Williams III, who finished with 10 rebounds and four blocks to go along with eight points.
Golden State star Stephen Curry overcame early foul trouble to make six 3-pointers and finish with 31 points. Curry remained in the game with 4:07 to play in the fourth quarter despite appearing to injure his left leg while vying for a loose ball.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Curry was removed from the game given his team’s 14-point deficit with 2:19 to play. — Field Level Media
