Boston Celtics: 3 takeaways from major Game 2 loss to Golden State

The Boston Celtics lost Game 2 of the NBA Finals to the Golden State Warriors on Sunday night, and, in turn, the home team evened up the series at one apiece. The C’s hung around with the Dubs until the second half, where they took complete control, mounting a lead of as much as 29.

This was never a must-win for this C’s team as they had already done their job in Game 1 by taking home-court advantage away from the Warriors. However, if they were to have pulled this one out, they would have been in a prime position to win their first NBA championship in over a decade.

Now, considering the C’s struggles at home, we could be looking at a more even series.

While Boston maintained some of their hot shooting from beyond the arc (40.5 percent on 37 attempts), the Warriors matched that number on the dot, not allowing the shamrocks to get back into the game. They were hitting moving 30-footers from all around the court, including a 40-foot buzzer-beater from Jordan Poole that ended the third period and, in turn, served as the cherry on top, so to speak, to the Warriors’ epic second half.

Many bad habits reared their heads in the NBA Finals, which is never a good sign. Fortunately, with two days off in between Sunday’s bout and Wednesday’s, coach Ime Udoka will have lots of time to make the proper adjustments on both sides of the ball to secure a Game 3 victory:

Boston Celtics takeaway No. 1) Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers

Jayson Tatum put it best after the game:

Obviously, they were not a really good team on Sunday, mainly due to the fact that they turned the ball over. The C’s finished with 18 giveaways compared to Golden State’s 12, seven of which occurred in the first quarter and 15 in the first 36 minutes (the competitive portion of the game).

Tatum finished with four, which isn’t a horrific number on its own but, combined with Marcus Smart‘s five in only 25 minutes of play, it starts to add up. Boston played reasonably well in the first half except for these miscues–if they took care of the ball, they could have had a double-digit lead heading into halftime.

Instead, they found themselves down two, with not enough of a cushion to sustain the Warriors’ third-quarter onslaught. While some of them were forced, with the active hands of Golden State’s wing defenders, the C’s seemed a step off all night, either trying to force a play to happen by going through multiple defenders or simply throwing a careless crosscourt pass, just asking to be intercepted.

15 of the 18 C’s turnovers were live-ball, creating many transition opportunities for a Warriors team that has struggled in the halfcourt. It’s clear how much worse the outcome gets when Boston doesn’t take care of the ball.

Game 2 was a prime example of some of Boston’s worst tendencies coming back to bite them.