The Boston Celtics did what many people thought was impossible Thursday night.
Not only did they walk into Chase Center with a roster full of inexperienced NBA Finals players, but they did so facing a team that had been to that stage five times in the prior seven seasons, riding a dominant fourth quarter performance on their way to a 120-108 victory, where they beat that same Golden State Warriors team at their own brand of basketball.
Golden State’s roster boasts some of the best 3-point shooting talent that the game of basketball has ever seen, showing that to be true in Game 1 when Stephen Curry made history at Boston’s expense early on. Unfortunately for the Warriors, that still wasn’t enough for a Celtics team that caught fire from beyond the arc.
The Celtics shot 51.3% from 3-point land Thursday, scoring more than half their total points by way of the long ball. The fourth quarter in particular showed Boston’s 3-point skills as they went 9-for-12 from deep in the frame, erasing a 12-point deficit and eventually building a 14-point lead of their own.
Al Horford, Derrick White, Marcus Smart, and Payton Pritchard all shot better than 50% from deep for Boston, while Golden State only had two players, Stephen Curry and Otto Porter Jr., do so on their side.
While this likely isn’t a performance that Boston can expect to repeat, it serves as the biggest difference maker in a statement game to begin this series.
Boston and Golden State will return to Chase Center on Sunday, with tipoff scheduled for 8 p.m. ET.
