There was no room for interpretation, no opaque musings, for Draymond Green on Friday night.
The Warriors were heading back to the Bay Area with the NBA Finals now fixed in a 2-2 series deadlock. And it was all a byproduct of Golden State’s best player turning the parquet floor at TD Garden into his own shootaround session.
“Yeah, he wasn't letting us lose,” Green said of Steph Curry and the 43-point salvo he uncorked in the Dubs’ Game 4 victory over the Celtics. “That's what it boils down to. You hear all the noise for a day or so, and I could tell in his demeanor the last couple days, even after Game 3, that he was going to come out with that type of fire. And he did, and we were all able to follow it.”
Sure, the Kerr-led Warriors have benefited from multiple cogs that have churned out this near-decade of dominance — be it Green, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala … now Andrew Wiggins. The list goes on and on.
That being said, “as Curry goes, so goes the Dubs” have often been the prevailing narrative for this franchise.
And given Curry’s cheat-code-like knack for finding twine from just about any angle, spot and situation on the hardwood, the Warriors have rarely found themselves sputtering for extended stretches — not when a T-1000 like Curry is the one conducting your offense.
It’s a testament to Curry’s greatness and the absurd expectations that we now take for granted with his sharp-shooting prowess that Friday’s takeover performance — while certainly timely — was far from unexpected.
A 43-point deluge in a critical NBA Finals game? Ho hum.
But an 0-for-9 performance from 3-point range just a few nights later in Game 5? Time to sound the alarms.
Of course, even the greatest snipers in NBA history have had evenings in which their shooting talents went cold, bounces didn’t fall their way, their form is out of sorts, etc.
But Curry isn’t exactly a guy you label in that same tier with other legendary long-range shooters. Rather, he’s in a class all by himself.
Because an 0-for-9 showing wasn’t just a “rough night at the office” for Golden State’s star guard — it was a complete anomaly.
Before Monday’s Game 5 showdown, the last time that Curry left the court and failed to make a single shot from beyond the arc was back on Nov. 8, 2018. That’s 233 straight games with a 3-pointer, including the regular season and the playoffs.
For those keeping track, Jayson Tatum was just 20 years old the last time Curry failed to hit from deep in a game. And nine 3-point attempts? That marked the third-most attempts without a make in any game in Curry’s illustrious career.
“I think Steph was probably due for a game like this,” Steve Kerr said postgame. “He's been shooting the ball so well that, at some point, he was going to have a tough night. … Boston did a really good job defensively, as we would expect.
"They are a great defensive team. I thought they put more pressure on him early in pick-and-roll. And Steph missed some open ones, too. So it's always a combination. But even for the best shooter in the world, you know, games like this happen.”
There was no room for interpretation — Curry’s ice-cold night from 3-point range gave the Celtics a freebie on a night in which they desperately needed to reassert control of this series down in San Francisco.
But rather than capitalize with Golden State’s best scorer firing blanks, the C’s — like many of the other freebies handed their way on Monday — promptly front-rimmed them from the charity stripe at Chase Center.
You can harp on the officiating if it makes you feel any better. You can tip your cap to the rest of Golden State’s supporting cast like Wiggins (26 points, 13 rebounds), Thompson (21 points) and Jordan Poole (14 points) for carrying the scoring burden with Curry in a rut.
But at the end of the day, what we’ve known about this Celtics team for MONTHS now was once again reaffirmed.
Boston’s primary obstacle on the way to Banner 18 wasn’t the dynamic duo of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. It wasn’t Giannis Antetokounmpo barreling into the paint at will. It wasn’t Jimmy Butler and a scrappy Heat team.
And, for as much as Game 4 stated otherwise, the C’s ability to get over the hump and finish the job in the NBA Finals doesn’t rest on just how many treys Curry can hit, night in and night out.
No, the Celtics’ main obstacle is themselves. And with Curry finally mortal on the hardwood, Boston simply couldn’t get out of its own way.
“I don't think I've ever been happier after a 0-for-whatever type of night, just knowing the context of the game, the other ways you tried to impact the game and the fact that, you know, you had four guys step up in meaningful ways to help us win offensively,” Curry said. “So all that stuff matters. Yeah, there's a fire burning and I want to make shots, but the rest of it is about how we win the game, and we did that.”
In what ended up being a 10-point loss, the Celtics missed a whopping 10 shots at the free-throw line. Boston turned the ball over 18 times — amounting to 22 points for the Warriors. Golden State? Just seven turnovers.
Ballgame.
Following Monday’s loss, the Celtics are now saddled with an 0-6 record in the postseason when they’re knocked for 16+ turnovers. Less than 16? A 14-3 record.
Seems like a pretty cut-and-dry correlation between on-court execution and postseason success. And for Boston to once again stray from winning basketball on a historically bad night for the best 3-point shooter in league history just simply twists the knife further.
And to make matters worse?
It remains to be seen if the Celtics have the mettle and the fight to keep their season alive and win two more games against this Warriors team. Perhaps they can surprise us once again.
What won’t come as a surprise, however, is Curry finding his shooting stroke once again in Game 6 ... and potentially, Game 7.
That much is a certainty — and just about everyone set to do battle on Thursday night knows it.
“He's going to be livid going into Game 6, and that's exactly what we need,” Green said of Curry.