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Golden State Warriors (35-14) 115 -111 Boston Celtics (30-19)

First published January 27th 2019
It was always going to be interesting to see a recovering Cousins have Horford as a matchup. The Celtics can take him out of his comfort zone with that spacing, likely the first time DMC dealt with this since his return.
One thing Cousins does a lot is he just ball watches once the opponent's shot goes up. I'm not sure if that's a injury thing or not (i hope so) but here he is doing it first game back and here he is doing it today again (and a case where he followed it up with a foul on Tatum ). Not trying to be harsh when he's not even 100 minutes into playing basketball after almost a calendar year out, but just tracking the things that are expected to improve. His shooting and screen setting is already at the level this teams needs it.
Warriors fed Klay while Irving was on him who, even if improved from his Cleveland days, will always struggle going around screens. Smart got back to being on him primarily pretty quickly. On the other side, Boston looked to exploit Cousins current rustiness by having go at him, mostly driving against him after a pick is set by the Boston center. Admittedly there's this... I'm not sure if it was DMC that was supposed to switch or if he just went for the softest double ever and KD didn't rotate.
Irving just playing fantastically right now. 7 minutes in he already had 4 assists and was 3-3 from beyond the line. By halftime he had 19 and 5 on 12 shots. The Warriors during the end stretch of the 1st with Klay defending the point and Looney subbed him improved a lot the defense. KD at this point was basically just alone getting buckets for himself every trip down. 14 points for him on the quarter.
Curry played with the second quarter unit because of the two fouls early, and he blew up. 5 threes on that many attempts, a couple of successful drives and good playmaking. I'm yet too see anyone else that moves off ball the way he does. How he sprints outside the moment the ball leaves his hands catches defenses off guard every single game, and he's doing it for years. It's an art form.
Horford checking back was a huge part of a 10-0 run that erased the Warriors lead in the final two minutes (KD shot 1-5 against Horford). When he's healthy there are few centers more valuable. The Warriors still struggle for rebounds and he makes them pay for it often. Halftime comes as a one possession game. Was honestly surprised both teams were shooting below 50% but that tells you about the pace of this game.
The start of the third was centered around DMC, both because he got some good looks on jump shots wish he drained and because the Celtics knew he had 4 fouls and looked to make sure he wasn't playing for long. Number 5 would come with 8 minutes left on the quarter... Tatum was out of his mind with 11 points in like 3 minutes. Game was still close but the Celtics help defense was top notch, despite 6-10 for the Dubs. (C's started 7-10 btw).
There are some obvious issues with spacing for the Warriors in the McKinnie/Iggy/KD/Green/Looney minutes. Defense is solid as fuck though and this a small sample but the numbers with McKinnie has your smallest guy are great on that end. Without any hot shooting, it was mostly the higher gear of defense that saw the warriors doing an double digit run of their own. It's still amazing to me to see how capable Looney became on that end of the floor. With Irving on the bench it was a 4+ minute drought.
Irving and Horfod, those two again, absolutely destroyed the Warriors when the final quarter began. They were helped by Klay being easy to smother and defend, with a line up that's big in size but, let's not pretend, getting stops takes more than winning length-wise.
I'm sorry for this
Kerr responded with getting Curry and KD back in. As offensive rebounding was still coming too easy for the Celtics in this crucial time, Kerr decided to take a gamble and play a lineup with both Looney and Cousins. And credit to DeMarcus, couple of steals in consecutive plays, but this is also the time where these miss communicationscan't happen. The stagnation for the Warriors during this quarter continued and it would be dishonest not to credit the intensity of the Celtics defense. Plus, they looked too much for Cousins.
Irving was finishing incredible layups but the Celtics never iced the game because of turnovers. Green's defense was absolutely terrific in the clutch and Klay scored decisive points with a fastbreak three and the free throws adding to a great job defending Kyrie. Speaking of Green, that fucking rebound! And i don't care what anyone says, Curry's mean, you-can-boo-all-you-want-i'm-ending-this face to shoot a free throw is my new favorite thing in the world.
Good game for entertainment value. All the biggest names had their great moments.
Other notes:
Having Green being himself again has been the greatest factor for how good January has been for the Warriors.
As always, great environment for this game with the Boston crowd doing what they do best. They have a fan doing fucking Jedi mind tricks
JVG: " [Turnovers] might be his [Cousins'] 'Achilles Heel' ... silence from the broadcast team ... might not be the best pun". By the way Jeff, not a pun.
lol at KD never shooting a heave to end the quarter, god forbid his percentage goes down from it.
Marcus Smart's hair looks bad.

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