Boston Celtics: 2 studs from C’s epic Game 3 victory to take series lead
By Mark Nilon
The Boston Celtics finally were able to bring things back to their home floor Wednesday night, playing the role of host for the first time in this year’s NBA Finals.
They did not waste such an opportunity.
Right from the jump, the C’s were seemingly looking to make up for their blunder of a performance Sunday night and came out swinging, outscoring the visiting Warriors 33-22 in the first period whilst converting on 54 percent of their shots from the floor and 40 percent of their shots from deep.
Now, Golden State did wind up making quite a number of runs of their own as the contest progressed, especially during the third quarter where they slowly but surely chipped away at Boston’s edge and even took the lead at the 3:45 mark.
That said, as they’ve done all season when faced with adversity, the shamrocks stayed cool, calm, and collected which kept them level-headed enough to take a step back, make some necessary adjustments, and, ultimately, execute their gameplan correctly.
With this, after seeing their lead squandered, it didn’t take long for the Boston Celtics to reclaim the advantage, going up by two points less than 30 seconds later and, from this point on, never ceded it again.
By the time the final buzzer sounded, both team’s reserves had been playing for several minutes and, in the end, we saw the C’s walking away with a 116-100 victory and a 2-1 series lead over Golden State.
Wednesday’s successes were achieved by means of a total team effort, one that saw five players scoring in double-figures and all but one finishing with a positive box plus-minus rating (the one being Derrick White which, frankly, is a bit suspect considering how impactful he was on defense and in the hustle department alone).
Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Marcus Smart each had major performances on both ends of the floor and, with their efforts, they became the first trio since 1984 to register 20+ points and 5+ assists in a single Finals game.
Game 3 was truly an exhilarating contest, one that should absolutely be celebrated, and, in an effort to do just this, we at HH would like to shine the spotlight on 2 unsung studs from the outing: