SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – The ball was moving, the shots were falling and the arena was shaking in the very familiar third quarter for the Golden State Warriors.
Then came the fourth quarter and the surprising collapse of the more experienced team, as the Warriors missed a rare Rally 1 playoff game under coach Steve Kerr, losing the NBA finals 120-108 to the Boston Celtics on Thursday night.
The Warriors turned a 12-point lead after three-quarters into a 12-point loss in a shocking twist that silenced a tumultuous crowd celebrating Golden State’s return to the finals after a two-year absence.
Boston made their first seven three-pointers for the quarter and escaped, leading to the chanting of “Let’s go to the Celtics!” In the final seconds in a half-empty arena. The Warriors scored just 16 points in the fourth quarter after an explosion of 38 points in the third put them seemingly in control.
The crash has led the Warriors to complain to officials and seek answers after their first loss at home in those playoffs after opening with nine straight wins.
It was the biggest lead after three-quarters of an NBA Finals game in 30 years, when the experienced Warriors fell apart in the squad instead of a Celtics team full of newcomers to the finals. The last team to lose a final game by at least 12 points after three quarters was Portland in 1992, losing at the end of Game 6 to Michael Jordan and the Bulls.
The loss in Game 1 was only the third in 24 playoff series for the Warriors under coach Steve Kerr, and the rest were in the finals in 2019 against Toronto and in the finals of the Western Conference in 2016 against Oklahoma City.
This also overshadowed the incredible start of Stephen Curry, who made the record for the finals six 3 points and scored 21 points in the first quarter.
But the Celtics corrected and Curry made just one three and scored 13 points by the end of the road.
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