The Boston Celtics might have some scars from last June that still haven’t healed.
That’s what it looked like at Chase Center on Saturday night, when the Warriors (14-13) dispatched the NBA-best Celtics (21-6) in a 123-107 blowout win that made it seem like they still have Boston’s number.
It was probably the Warriors’ best overall performance of the season, one made even more impressive that it was done without Andrew Wiggins, Golden State’s second-best player in the Finals last season.
Like last year, the Warriors played excellent defense — primarily on Jayson Tatum — and got an alpha performance from Stephen Curry. Like last year, the bench — although one featuring different players — held their own. Like last year, Kevon Looney gobbled up rebounds, 15 in this one. Unlike last year, Klay Thompson played like he did before his two catastrophic injuries.
It’s just one game, but it’s one that gets the Warriors above .500, and will give them confidence that they’re still are the class of the league when they put it all together. For Boston, it will only make the monkey on their back seem heavier, despite the fact that they are an even better team than last year.
Here are three takeaways:
Mr. Saturday Night
Klay Thompson loves the Saturday showcase.
This was the third time time in a row that Thompson has exploded in the ABC Saturday game at Chase Center (H/T John Dickinson). Klay dropped 33 vs. the Lakers on Feb. 12 of last year, 38 vs. the Bucks on March 12 and 34 on Saturday vs. the Celtics.
This was his best two-way game of the season.
It was a continuation of a much more consistent Thompson, ever since the players-only meeting three weeks ago in which he took Draymond Green’s advice to not force shots. Since then he hasn’t, and he’s looking more like the player that was very good in the NBA Finals last year.
Thompson definitely channeled that player and more on Saturday, including the one that locked down Jaylen Brown at times late in the series. This time, Thompson played fantastic defense on Tatum for large stretches.
Klay’s ability to play elite defense is arguably a more important development than his improved shooting. From an offensive standpoint, Thompson’s issues were mostly mental. He needed to relearn how to make the right basketball play in order to improve his own individual play.
The defense, however, has a lot to do with his physical ability, and there were questions as to if he’d ever be able to shut down elite wings on the perimeter again.
He’s still a long way from doing that consistently, but it’s great to see him turn it on against the league’s best.
Championship Defense
The Warriors’ overall defense was extremely crisp, making the league’s number one offense look like much less than that.
Consider that three days ago, the Celtics dropped 125 points on the Suns while playing their starters three quarters, and shooting nearly 50 percent from the field. On Saturday, the Celtics scored 107 points and shot 43.7 percent. For context, the league-worst Houston Rockets shoot 44.4 percent per game.
Tatum, who is averaging 30 points per game, was held to 18 points on 6-of-21 shooting thanks to a combination of mostly Thompson and Jonathan Kuminga, who is starting to get more consistent reps guarding the league’s best players. As an aside, Kuminga was also Golden State’s best offensive player on the bench, adding 14 points, five rebounds and three assists.
Golden State’s 3-point defense was especially supurb, where sharp rotations led to very few uncontested shots on the perimeter. The Celtics shot just 30 percent from deep after entering Saturday as the league’s best team from beyond the arc.
Ridiculous Steph
From a statistical standpoint, Saturday was a solid Stephen Curry performance. If you watched the game, however, it was eye-popping.
Curry finished with 32 points, six rebounds and seven assists. He went 6-of-11 from deep. He also had one of the coolest plays of the season, hitting a buzzer-beater at the end of the first quarter from near the logo, turning around before it went in.
It was just one of many deep Curry threes. Here are some others, including the fourth quarter dagger:
Tatum might be the MVP favorite, but Curry played with the flair of the dude who won the award in the Finals last season.
