In what was quite a battle between Jayson Tatum and Stephen Curry, Tatum would score 44 points as the Boston Celtics rallied from a 16 point first half deficit Saturday night for a 119-114 win over the Golden State Warriors at TD Garden in Boston. It is the sixth straight win for the Celtics.
Golden State (28-29) built the largest lead of the night when Curry hit a long three-pointer with 1:29 left in the first half to make it 66-50. A Tatum turnaround jumper just before the buzzer though finished off a 10-0 Boston run to cut the Warriors halftime lead to 66-60. A Kemba Walker three-pointer early in the third quarter gave the Celtics a 71-68 lead, their first lead since three minutes into the game. The hosts would take their biggest advantage of seven on a Tatum dunk later in the period, but Golden St. would rally back led by Curry and it was tied at 89-89 headed to the fourth quarter. The duel continued in the last quarter as Curry hit another one from long distance, one of his 11 three-pointers, to make it 109-103 Warriors with 4:10 left to play. Boston (31-26) would score the next eight points on two free throws from Walker, a three-pointer from Tatum, and then with 1:16 to go Marcus Smart was left wide open and drained a three to make it 111-109 Celtics. Kevin Looney tied it for the visitors with a tip-in just 20 seconds later, before a driving Tatum layup would regain the lead for the Celts. After a missed layup by Draymond Green, Walker padded the advantage by draining one from downtown to make it 116-111 with 24.8 seconds remaining. Curry hit a well defended three over two defenders in the corner on the other end to cut it to just two, but Tatum and Walker hit 3-4 from the line in the last 13 seconds to ice the win.
Tatum added 10 rebounds, three assists, and two steals to his team high in points. Walker had 26 points and eight rebounds, while Smart finished with 16 points, nine rebounds, and six assists. Payton Pritchard and newly acquired Jabari Parker also got into double figures with 11 points a piece. The team played without Jaylen Brown, due to a non-covid related illness. Curry had a game high 47 points in the loss for Golden State, making 11-19 from the three-point arc and also adding seven rebounds. It is the 10th straight game in which he has played that he has scored 30 or more points. Andrew Wiggins had 22 points, while Kent Bazemore chipped in 12. The loss snaps the Warriors four game win streak. Boston is in sole possession of fourth place in the Eastern Conference standings, 1/2 game ahead of Atlanta and one game better than New York. The Celtics will host the Chicago Bulls on Monday night.
