The Golden State Warriors dared Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown to beat them from the outside and paid for it with their fourth-worst loss in franchise history.
Brown sparked the Celtics’ breakaway from a tight first quarter with three straight 3s to spark a 58-13 run by Boston, dealing the Warriors a humiliating 140-88 blowout loss on Sunday, March 3, at the end of their road trip.
“First time it’s ever happened to me,” Brown told reporters of the Warriors defensive strategy to let Draymond Green sag off and kept him wide open. “Honestly, I was a bit surprised. It took a little bit of adjusting and I think we just took advantage of whatever that attempt was and made the best of it.
“If you wanna dare me to shoot, we can do that, too. I thought it was a little disrespectful, but we took advantage of it and we didn’t look back.”
Warriors coach Steve Kerr explained the logic behind their defense that broke the game wide open for the Celtics.
“You try different things,” Kerr told reporters. “You have to pick your matchups. We wanted Draymond to help on drives to make sure we weren’t giving up easy stuff.”
Brown, who entered the contest shooting 34.8% from the deep, was angered by the Warriors’ mocking defense and drained 5 of 10 3-pointers.
“More teams should take this strategy,” Brown posted on X, tweet-quoting Kerr’s explanation.
As the Celtics sat on a 44-point halftime lead, Kerr rested his starters in the second half.
Only Moses Moody finished in double figures among the Warriors starters with 11 points. Lester Quiñones paced them with 17 points off the bench.
Stephen Curry’s Knee Injury
Warriors superstar Stephen Curry, who was questionable with a knee injury before the game, wound up with a season-low four points in 17 minutes. He missed 11 of 13 shots from the field Sunday and bricked all nine of his 3-point attempts, including back-to-back airballs in the first quarter.
Curry explained his decision to suit despite hurting his knee in their last game in Toronto.
“We just wanted to make sure it didn’t swell up any more than it already did,” Curry told reporters. “I woke up this morning [and] it was in a good spot when I tried to test it to see if I could not feel any pain when I was out there and that’s how it went.
“So it was a good decision to play just based on how it felt.”
The Warriors have two days off before they can bounce back from this one. But it will not be easy. Waiting for them are the streaking Milwaukee Bucks, winners of their last five games, on March 6 at home. It is going to be a tough opener for a three-game homestand in four nights.
‘Perfect Storm’
Curry said the embarrassing loss to their 2022 NBA Finals nemesis was a “perfect storm” for the road-weary Warriors.
“It was one of those perfect storms of just a rough night on our end and them taking it to us,” Curry told reporters. “So you know they’ve elevated their game and you got to give them credit.”
The Warriors went to Boston, the finale of a four-game road trip, coming off an exhausting come-from-behind 120-105 win against the Raptors on March 1, overcoming their “worst travel experience” from New York.
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Jaylen Brown Takes a Dig at Warriors’ Steve Kerr for ‘Disrespectful’ Tactic