Warriors overcome Boston with an overtime victory despite injuries and fouls…

The Golden State Warriors leaned on big performances from their young players in a wild overtime game against the Boston Celtics. But in crunch time, the team leaned on the old reliable Splash Brothers to deliver their biggest win of the season, 132-126.

In the final seconds of overtime, with the Dubs holding a 127-126 lead, Curry made his sixth three-pointer of the game to seal the comeback victory. With 9:53 remaining, they were down 11 points, but Curry played the last 17 minutes while picking up five fouls, and the Warriors overcame the league-leading Celtics on TNT. Together, he and Thompson scored 57 points on 12-of-26 three-point shooting.

Jonathan Kuminga had his second steal in overtime, getting a dunk on the run-out to give the Warriors their first lead of the second half, after 25 minutes and 36 seconds. He finished with 17 points, seven rebounds and zero fouls despite regularly guarding Jayson Tatum.

Then rookie Trayce Jackson-Davis, surprisingly part of the team’s closing and overtime lineup, delivered a layup and a huge block on Jaylen Brown on the other end. He finished with ten points, 13 rebounds, and three blocks in what has to be the best game of his young career. Reggie Miller compared TJD to his father, Miller’s old Indiana Pacers teammate Antonio Davis.

Golden State allowed an Al Horford three-pointer that cut the lead to a point, but after TJD kept Curry’s miss alive, Chris Paul grabbed a rebound, and Curry delivered the “Night Night.”

With Curry playing with five fouls in the fourth quarter, the Celtics might have committed a tactical blunder. On offense, they frequently went after the Baby-Faced Assassin, sometimes to the detriment of their own offensive momentum. Boston appeared to obstruct Golden State’s efforts to hunt down fouls, to which Golden State responded by doubling. With 3:16 remaining, Curry even drew a foul on Jaylen Brown before draining a three-pointer to trim the Celtics’ lead to 116-115.

Klay Thompson responded with his sixth three-pointer of the game, tying the game at 118.

Not to be outdone, Derrick White made his seventh three-pointer of the game. Then Curry hit a step back three to make it 121-121.

After surviving four offensive rebounds and five Boston misses, the Warriors had two chances to win in regulation, but Curry and Chris Paul missed threes. Then Jonathan Kuminga smothered Tatum into a wild three and sent the game to overtime.

Boston came out with a 40-point first quarter, led by 14 Jaylen Brown points and a perfect 3-3 performance from long-range by Derrick White, who also had two blocked shots and forced a turnover. He harassed Steph Curry into a turnover and finished the game with 30 points, seven triples and three blocks. It seemed as if, just like in the 2022 Finals, the Warriors dared White and Al Horford to beat them from deep. White was 7-for-18 and Horford was 3-for-10, so it sort of worked, mainly because Tatum was only 2-for-9.

Tatum turned an ankle early but the Warriors couldn’t take advantage, thanks to sloppy turnovers and missing their first six shots from deep. He returned for the second quarter, where the Warriors fell behind by 11, even after eight points in the first two minutes from Dario “The Homie” Saric.

But the team turned it around when Curry and rookie Trayce Jackson-Davis checked in. Golden State went on an 16-2 run, albeit with nearly two full scoreless minutes in the middle, built almost exclusively on dunks, layups, and free throws.

In the first half, the Warriors had a rough time finishing quarters. The first ended on a 6-3 Boston run, thanks to Neemia Queta getting a bucket after rebounding his own miss twice, and a blatant travel from Jrue Holiday with a second left. In the second, Boston closed on an 8-3 run, thanks to a questionable blocking foul on Steph Curry, his third. That led to a Derrick White three-pointer – where Neemias Queta injured Podziemski while boxing out.

That meant the Warriors started the third with Andrew Wiggins in the lineup, and his year-long struggles continued. He didn’t make a shot through three quarters, and in one first-quarter sequence, got blocked by White, missed his own follow, then whiffed on his tip-in.

How did he break out? He got a dime from Curry in transition when Kerr brought him back to start the fourth.

Steve Kerr continued his reputation as one of the NBA’s best coaches and worst challengers by letting Curry’s third foul call slide, but challenging his fifth, obvious foul midway through the third quarter, a no-hope challenge that was easily upheld by a rare speedy replay review.

After Curry was forced to leave, Queta’s bucket helped the Celtics extend their lead to 12 points. Despite Chris Paul and Cory Joseph being in the game, Klay Thompson came back from rest early and assumed the starting point guard position. After Thompson assisted Trayce Jackson-Davis on a layup, the rookie assisted TJD on the following play when he found Joseph for a layup.

With 28 points in the end, Brown was one of seven Celtics to score in double figures. Horford finished with 13 points and 12 assists, but Sam Hauser, a reserve, missed all six of his three-point attempts and looked like he was drowning in the water.