BOSTON — The Warriors have talked since training camp in Hawaii about making defense their identity.
Wednesday night in the TD Garden was the night it became true.
The Warriors entered the night with the second best defensive rating in the league, but they’d only taken care of business against lesser teams. The defending champion Celtics, with the best offense in the league even without Kristaps Porzingis (and Jaylen Brown on Wednesday), presented by far their biggest challenge yet.
And Golden State proved its defensive prowess is real.
Andrew Wiggins locked up Jayson Tatum (32 points) for long stretches of the game. The Warriors’ rotations were on-point. Golden State held the Celtics to 16 points in the second quarter and dismal first-half shooting. They recovered from a tough third quarter to clamp down in a back-and-forth fourth.
The Warriors (7-1) held the Celtics to their season-low 112 points, extending their winning streak to five with a 118-112 victory. Steph Curry scored a season-high 27 points and added nine assists, seven rebounds and four steals to upset what’s widely regarded best team in the league.
“Obviously, Boston was without Jaylen Brown and Porzingis, so this is not the best version of their team, but they’re still damn good,” Steve Kerr said postgame. “It’s a hell of a win in a tough environment. We had some guys out, too.”
The game certainly had an intense vibe. Golden State closed out its fourth title in eight years in this building. Boston, after years of routinely playing the Warriors tight, seemed to exorcize their Bay Area demons last year, when they stomped Golden State by 52 here.
There wasn’t an iota of gratitude in the TD Garden crowd for Steve Kerr, who helped lead Team USA — and three Celtics — to Olympic gold this summer. Celtics fans, bereaved at Kerr’s decision to bench and limit Celtics star Jayson Tatum’s playing time in Paris, welcomed the Warriors coach with a chorus of boos. All game, four fans dressed in Tatum USA jerseys sat next to Kerr along the visiting bench.
But the rest of the boos mostly came after foul calls the crowd — and Boston’s bench — took umbrage with.
No regular season game, particularly a November game, should be weighed too much. But the Celtics represented the Warriors’ first true test of the season.
It was ugly early. The Warriors missed ten of their first 11 shots, but Boston didn’t capitalize with the kind of massive first-quarter run they’ve often made this season. They went on a five-minute scoring drought in a sloppy first quarter; Boston shot 31.6% from the floor, while the Warriors shot 29.2%.
Then the Warriors took their first lead of the game with an all-bench unit to start the second. Even without Brandin Podziemski (illness) and De’Anthony Melton (back), Kerr stuck with his full 11-man rotation.
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The Celtics didn’t have Kyle Anderson heat check on their bingo card. To put Golden State ahead, Anderson drilled three 3-pointers in a row. Before that, he was 3-for-16 on the season.
Then the Warriors won the second quarter, 32-16. Moses Moody hauled in an offensive rebound and banked in a runner at the horn to send the Warriors into halftime with a 51-40 lead.
At that point, the Celtics — the most voluminous 3-point shooting team ever — went 6-for-20 from behind the arc and shot 35.1% overall. The Warriors forced them into 10 turnovers, including four from Tatum.
On the defensive end, Wiggins looked like he did in the 2022 NBA Finals. He locked up Tatum in isolation and fought through screens to force contested 3s or long twos. Tatum, who has begun this season on an MVP pace, shot 2-for-7 in the first half.
Draymond Green, who has been terrific this season defensively, constantly mucked up the paint with rotations. On one play, Jrue Holiday beat Curry along the baseline, only for Green to cut him off on the block, allowing Curry to recover and strip Holiday. After the swipe, Curry found Moody in the corner for a 3.
Tatum found a rhythm in the third, scoring 17 points in the quarter. Curry nearly matched him with 11, but the Warriors’ defense that swarmed in the first half suddenly surrendered 41 points — and 10 3-pointers and a swath of second-chance scores.
“The offensive rebounds just killed us,” Kerr said. “That’s how they started knocking down 3s.”
Clinging to an 82-81 lead to start the final quarter, the Warriors brought Curry back in for the final eight minutes. He wasn’t on a minutes restriction like he was in Washington, but in only his second game back from a sprained ankle, 34 minutes was certainly a sign of the Warriors going for it.
When Curry checked in for the fourth quarter, the Warriors trailed by four. He sank three free throws and canned a step-back 3 in the corner, drawing the Warriors back within one. The Warriors’ lineup combinations around him skewed toward defense, which once again slowed Boston.
Curry then finished inside to cap an 11-2 Warriors run before Tatum converted an and-1. After his foul shot, the Warriors led by two with as many minutes left.
A pair of Kevon Looney buckets maintained Golden State’s narrow cushion, then Buddy Hield hit a corner 3, celebrating with Curry as the Warriors pushed its lead to a game-high seven.
The Celtics turned the last two minutes into a free-throw contest, and the Warriors made enough to ice the game. Draymond Green, who struggled with his jump shot on the night, hit three of four in the final minute to cement the win.
Tatum, on an anticipated night in which he could have stuck it to Kerr with a huge performance, bowed his head as he walked back to the home locker room.
