Steph Curry Carried The Warriors To A Game 4 Win In Boston

A best-of-3 series will determine the 2022 NBA champion. Thanks to one of the best postseason performances in Steph Curry’s career, the Golden State Warriors walked into Boston for Game 4 of the NBA Final on Friday night and picked up a 107-97 win over the Celtics to tie the series up at two games each.

Steve Kerr rolled the dice to start the game by inserting Otto Porter into the starting lineup for Kevon Looney. It didn’t work out like he hoped, as Looney came in for Porter less than five minutes into the first with the Warriors trailing by six. Things did, however, start looking easier for Golden State once they went with a more natural lineup.

This included an 11-2 run when Porter returned to the game in place of Draymond Green, which helped the Warriors take their first three of the night on a triple by Curry.

Despite that, Boston was able to compose itself in the face of Golden State getting hot, and after Grant Williams hit a triple right before the buzzer sounded, the team found itself up, 28-27, after one.

The two teams threw haymaker after haymaker at one another in the second quarter. Every mini-run had a response, while Curry and Jayson Tatum both rose to the occasion — the former had a game-high 19 points at the break, while the latter had 16 with seven rebounds.

The Celtics were ultimately able to give themselves a bit of a cushion heading into the locker room, as the team took a 54-49 lead into the break. Jaylen Brown had 12 points while Derrick White scored 10 off the bench, and Robert Williams in particular seemed to give Golden State major problems, as he had five points with 10 rebounds and a pair of blocks.

For the Warriors, Andrew Wiggins had 11 with five rebounds and Jordan Poole scored nine off the bench, but save for one spell in the first, shots from deep just did not fall. The team went 7-for-24 from downtown in the first half, and even Curry struggled to hit threes, as he went 2-for-8.

While Golden State won the third quarter, it was not nearly as emphatic as we’ve seen earlier in the series. Outside of Curry, the team did not have too many consistent ways to attack the Celtic defense.

Having said that: Holy sh*t Curry was good in the third. The Warriors star scored 14 points in the quarter and hit four of his five tries from behind the three-point line, and the way he relentlessly attacked helped his team take a 79-78 lead into the fourth.

Boston was able to wrest the lead back early on in the fourth, thanks in large part to Brown attacking the Warriors over and over.

That last bucket led to Kerr making a major decision, as he opted to sit Green and inserted Looney for Nemanja Bjelica. The response was an 11-4 run for Golden State that led to them retaking the lead.

Green returned as part of what was essentially an offense/defense substitution pattern with Poole down the stretch whenever one could come into the game for the other. The plan worked out beautifully — Boston’s offense just could not get anything going down the stretch, and with just over 100 seconds left in the game, Curry pulled up from deep to make the outcome feel inevitable.

Curry’s 43 points on 14-for-26 shooting and 7-for-14 shooting from deep with 10 rebounds and four assists got Golden State across the finish line. Wiggins deputized admirably with 17 points and 16 rebounds, Klay Thompson went for 18 points, and Poole provided 14 off the bench. For Boston, Tatum’s 23 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, three blocks, and one steal stuffed the stat sheet, although he struggled down the stretch, with his final made shot coming with 10:46 remaining in the fourth quarter. Brown scored 21; Marcus Smart had 18 points with five assists, four steals, and four rebounds; and White scored 16.

Game 5 of the 2022 NBA Finals will take place in San Francisco on Monday night. It is scheduled to tip off at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.