Final: Warriors 109, Celtics 105

OAKLAND -- The Celtics will be going for the season sweep of the NBA's best team tonight at Oracle Arena. Here's a primer:

GAME: No. 50 of 82
WHO: Celtics (35-14) vs. Warriors (39-10)
WHEN:  8:30 EST
WHERE:  Oracle Arena
RADIO: 98.5 the Sports Hub
TV: ABC
BOX SCORE: ESPN.com

Projected Starting Lineups:

Celtics
PG: Kyrie Irving
SG: Jaylen Brown
SF: Jayson Tatum
PF: Al Horford
C: Aron Baynes

Warriors:

PG: Steph Curry
SG: Klay Thompson
SF: Kevin Durant
PF: Draymond Green
C: Zaza Pachulia

Third Quarter Notes

• Warriors start out the quarter with a fury, forcing a couple Celtics turnovers to help produce a 9-3 run to take the lead.


• Steph Curry having his way with Irving on offensive end. He's been abusing the guard on picks and the C's help defense isn't getting out there to contest the long jumpers. He had game-high 31 points in just 27 minutes.


• C's turnovers also becoming a major issue since the first quarter. They've got 11 in the second and third quarter alone, allowing the Warriors to take advantage with some transition opportunities.


• Offensive rebounding battle also started tipping the scales in the Warriors favor, as they grabbed five second chance boards in the frame, compared to just three over the rest of the game.


• Curry scored 18 of his game-high 34 points in the third quarter.


• Celtics bench is 2-of-12 from the field outside of Marcus Morris.


• Boston just able to sustain any consistent offense in the middle two quarters against a re-energized Warriors defense. They scored a combined 36 points in the middle two frames.

• Celtics' offense collapsed in the first three minutes of the second quarter with Irving and Brown on the pine. Stevens tried to ration offense by playing Tatum and Horford some time with the bench unit but some swarming Warriors defense forced tough shots and turnovers, giving them a 10-0 run to erase the C's 10-point lead.


• Shane Larkin didn't do much to make the most of his opportunity early. A couple long bombs that involved settling. Same goes for Rozier.


• Irving was the stabilizer once again as he returned to the floor after a six-minute rest. He made a pair of 3s to push his shooting for the night to 7-of-7 from field. He's almost impossible to guard when he's shooting like this.


• Marcus Morris continues to take a far bigger cut of the second unit shooting pie with Marcus Smart and that's not necessarily a bad thing. He shook off a slow start in the first quarter to make three straight baskets at end of second. He's got 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting.


• Jaylen Brown showed a little bit of tunnel vision in second quarter after his hot start, failing to take advantage of mismatches (Baynes vs. Thompson down low). He needs to sttay focused on his shot.


• Irving 19 points, Brown 14 points, Morris 10 points are your halftime leaders. Rest of Celtics have combined 11 points.


• Great defensive effort on Klay Thompson (2-of-8 shooting) in first quarter by Jaylen Brown and Terry Rozier.


• Semi Ojeleye with a couple rare drives on offensive end (he missed all three shots) but his defense makes him worth keeping out there against Warriros.

• Celtics come out of the gate running some of their best offense in weeks, carrying over momentum from the Clippers win on Wednesday. Jaylen Brown was particularly aggressive with his shot selection, in a good way, drawing closeouts and attacking the rim well.


• Celtics started 7-of-8 from field and 2-of-2 from downtown, building a 20-12 lead by the six minute mark. Strong offense is noteworthy particularly given the fact that they are sixth ranked defense in NBA.


• Warriors got theirs early with Steph Curry taking advantage of Kyrie Irving's defense, but C's have also produced a few nice stops, including a Horford block of Durant on a three and a pair of steals that produced layups.


• Celtics continued their early momentum on the backs of their backcourt even after the starters got an early rest. Jaylen Brown and Kyrie Irving started a combined 8-of-8 from the field with 25 points in just 9:40. Just an unbelievable sequence for both. Irving hitting deep jumpers from all over the floor, while Brown finished from inside/out.


• Marcus Morris, Daniel Theis and Terry Rozier with a mob sub at seven minute mark as Brad Stevens tried to balance out offense with bench unit.


• Celtics offense slowed down a little bit with the reserves in tow, but Jaylen goes the full 12 minutes and makes a couple buckets to finish things out and push things to 37 points in period.


• Marcus Morris was shot happy early as usual but missed a couple of good looks down low. Only C's struggling on offense right now (1-of-5 shooting). Outside of him, won't see a better quarter of offense all year.


• Some ugly misses by Nick Young early on alley oop and airballed 3.

• The Warriors have been cruising for much of the past few weeks, winning 11 of their past 13 games as they have slowly gotten healthy throughout the roster. They've scored 105 points or more in all 13 of those games. "They’re a joke," Brad Stevens said at Friday's practice. "I don’t even know what to say. It’s so fun to watch. You probably saw Brady and Shrewsberry’s kid, their Christmas present was to come out, right? It’s a special special group that’s been assembled. And they can go on runs that are absolute killer if you’re competing against them. And an absolute blast if you love good basketball. So I would just say that, when you put all that talent together, and they have such a desire to play together and enjoy playing together the way they do. Then that’s what makes it fun to watch."


• With Marcus Smart sidelined, the Celtics will be turning to Shane Larkin for a bigger role against the Warriors, as he'll be counted on to help slow down an explosive Warriors backcourt. Brad Stevens believes he's up to the challenge. "Other people are going to have to step up," he said. "It’s a great opportunity for somebody else. I think that’s the one thing that we really even talk about, kinda the things that, from a game-plan standpoint, we’ve got a lot of guys that will be playing either for the first time or second time against them and how we’re trying to play against. There’s a lot to review and talk about about cover but it’s a great opportunity for somebody else."


• The Celtics have won two straight games at Oracle Arena. Stevens reflected on the reasons for the C's success in that tough spot. "It’s really hard to play against these guys. These guys are -- they constantly keep you on your heels. I think in both of those games we were able to score at appropriate times to limit their runs. When they got on those 8- 10- 12-0 runs, it can happen in a minute. And it seemed like -- like watching last night’s game, it seemed like it happened eight times. I think that these guys are so special on both ends of the floor but you just have to try to make it a possession-by-possession game. That’s a lot easier said than done because this is an unbelievable environment and the talent, coaching, and everything else is top notch."