Celtics have no answers for Warriors’ third-quarter torrents
NBA Finals: Warriors outscored Celtics by 26 points in another
impressive third-quarter barrage in Game 2 Sunday night
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 5: Golden State Warriors’ Jordan
Poole (3) makes a 3-point basket against Boston Celtics’ Payton
Pritchard (11) as time expires in the third quarter of Game 2 of the NBA
Finals at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, June 5,
2022. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 5: Golden State Warriors’ Jordan
Poole (3) makes a 3-point basket against Boston Celtics’ Payton
Pritchard (11) as time expires in the third quarter of Game 2 of the NBA
Finals at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, June 5,
2022. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
By MADELINE KENNEY | mkenney@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: June 7, 2022 at 5:30 a.m. | UPDATED: June 7, 2022 at 7:25 a.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2022/06/07/celtics-have-no-answers-for-stopping-warriors-third-quarter-torrents/

SAN FRANCISCO — What exactly goes on in the Warriors’ locker room during
halftime remains largely a mystery.

Kevon Looney dismissed the notion that there could be a Rocky
Balboa-style speech to hype the group up for the second half of the game
as he noted after the Warriors’ most recent win Sunday that “not a lot
is said.”

Whatever the Warriors are doing appears to be working. Golden State has
continued its trend of thriving in third quarters as the Warriors have
dominated the Celtics to the tune of 73-38 in the NBA Finals during the
first 12 minutes after the break.

Boston used a stunning fourth-quarter comeback to overcome Golden
State’s third-quarter flurry in Game 1 of the NBA Finals Thursday but
couldn’t muster up the same late-game magic in Game 2.

The Warriors outscored the Celtics by 35-14 during another impressive
third-quarter torrent en route to their 107-88 blowout win over Boston
to even the series 1-1.

After pummeling the Warriors 40-16 down the stretch in Game 1, the
Celtics had no answers for the Warriors in Game 2 as Boston continued to
struggle to get things going after halftime. After Golden State scored
the first six points in the fourth quarter to extend its lead to 29,
Boston pulled its starters and called it a night.

“We’ve just got to be ready to go from that second half on,” Derrick
White said after the loss. “It’s easy to talk about it, but we’ve got to
go there, take it up, each man themselves, and go and do it.”

Stephen Curry had a lot to do with energizing the Warriors’ push Sunday
night. He scored 14 points — as many as the entire Celtics team in the
third — and made a trio of 3-pointers. Klay Thompson also hit a
momentum-shifting shot from downtown, his only 3-pointer of the night,
and Jordan Poole, after a deficient first half, drained a pair of his
own, including a near half-court heave at the buzzer to cap off the
pivotal period.

The Warriors also converted Boston’s five turnovers into 11 points.

Jayson Tatum, who scored 21 of his 28 points in the first half, said
turnovers and “letting our offense affect how we defend” were two of the
main reasons Boston fell behind in the second half.

“We were a little stagnant in the third quarter, and I feel like it
translated on the defensive end,” he said. “They got going and hitting
shots and things like that.”

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While Boston has struggled out of the gates in the second half, the
Warriors have traditionally done well after halftime. Golden State has
beat its opponents during that frame in 11 of its 18 games during this
playoff run. On six occasions, the Warriors have won the third quarter
by double digits.

“We come out in that third quarter and we know how important it is to
deliver that first punch and try to be aggressive, physical, decisive,”
Poole said. “That’s pretty much what it is. I think we know how
important those first couple minutes are, and we try to execute as best
we can.”

That will continue to be the mindset for Golden State, who avoided
falling in a calamitous 2-0 hole before the best-of-seven series shifted
to Boston. How the Celtics might counteract the Warriors’ second-half
charge has yet to be seen. But if Boston coach Ime Udoka can’t find a
solution, it could mean bad news for the Celtics.

“We’ve just got to come out and play basketball for 48 minutes,” Jaylen
Brown said. “We’re not a perfect team, but we’ll figure it out going
forward. We’ve just got to come out and play basketball. We know the
Warriors are a third-quarter team. We talked about it. They still came
out and were able to go on a run. We’ve just got to be able to answer.”