BOSTON — After three blowout video games, the N.B.A. finals lastly bought a nail-biter.
Golden State has received every recreation it has performed after a loss on this yr’s playoffs, and did it once more in Recreation 4 of the N.B.A. finals.
On Friday evening in entrance of a hostile crowd in Boston, Golden State evened its collection with the Celtics, 2-2, and regained home-court benefit. Golden State received, 107-97, with 43 factors from Stephen Curry, 18 from Klay Thompson and 17 from Andrew Wiggins.
As Golden State stretched its lead within the recreation’s last minutes, Celtics followers started to depart. When Curry was on the free-throw line with 19.1 seconds left within the recreation, a chant of “M.V.P.” might be heard within the higher deck of the sector.
The collection will return to San Francisco for Recreation 5 on Monday, adopted by Recreation 6 in Boston on Thursday.
The group heartily booed Golden State’s gamers, starting of their pregame warm-ups.
When Thompson appeared on the court docket an hour earlier than the sport, a gaggle of followers within the decrease bowl booed him. He acknowledged them along with his arms and inspired them to get louder. Draymond Inexperienced emerged a couple of minutes later and drew an excellent louder explosion of boos. Two nights earlier than, Thompson had criticized the group for chanting obscenities at Inexperienced.
The Celtics entered the sport with a 2-1 lead within the collection and aspirations of handing Golden State its first back-to-back losses on this yr’s playoffs. Earlier than Friday’s recreation, Golden State had received all 5 video games that adopted losses this postseason.
However Boston understood the fierce grip {that a} 3-1 lead can maintain in a best-of-seven collection.
“We perceive now we have an opportunity to do one thing particular, put some stress on tonight,” Celtics Coach Ime Udoka mentioned earlier than the sport. “You must come out with the identical mind-set, perceive it’s an extended collection, lengthy recreation, not attempt to get all of it within the first quarter, principally.”
The Celtics gained confidence from the best way that they had performed on Wednesday evening.
“Now we have to duplicate what we did in Recreation 3,” Celtics guard Marcus Good mentioned. “We decreased our turnovers. We decreased our second-chance factors, offensive rebounds. We simply managed the sport, the sport that we needed to play.”
Golden State made a change to its beginning lineup for the primary time this collection, changing Kevon Looney with Otto Porter Jr.
The playoffs this season have been characterised by blowouts, and the Celtics have performed in a number of of them, together with all three that got here throughout the finals. Boston received Recreation 1 by 12 factors, misplaced Recreation 2 by 19 and received Recreation 3 by 16.
However early on, Recreation 4 confirmed promise that it might be a tightly contested matchup that may keep attention-grabbing till the top.
Curry and Boston’s Jayson Tatum every scored 12 factors within the first quarter, and Curry screamed on the crowd after hitting one among his two 3-pointers of the quarter.
The body ended with Tatum passing the ball into the paint to Robert Williams III, who flicked the ball out to Grant Williams within the nook for a 3. Grant Williams’s 3 gave Boston a 28-27 lead heading into the second quarter.
By halftime, the lead had modified fingers six occasions and the rating had been tied 5 occasions.
It was Celtics guard Jaylen Brown’s flip to shine within the second quarter. He scored 10 factors and Boston outscored Golden State by 9 factors when he was on the court docket throughout that quarter.
Boston had stretched its lead barely by halftime, to 54-49.
However Golden State wouldn’t go quietly, particularly not with Curry accessible. He had 33 factors heading into the fourth quarter, having scored 14 within the third.
The sport was tied at 86 with eight minutes left.
Thompson picked up his fourth foul with 5:33 left within the recreation and the group chanted at him the identical obscene chant that they had directed at Inexperienced in Recreation 3, however changed “Draymond” with “Klay.” About one minute later, Thompson’s 3-pointer gave Golden State a 95-94 lead. Boston scored solely as soon as within the recreation’s last 5 minutes.
There was some doubt after Recreation 3 that Curry could be accessible for Recreation 4 as a result of he damage his foot in a pileup whereas preventing for a free ball. Curry participated in Golden State’s shootaround on Friday morning and was cleared to play.
After Curry’s efficiency Friday evening, the primary query posed to Golden State Coach Steve Kerr within the postgame information convention was a cheeky one about how he thought Curry’s foot held up. Kerr laughed.
Thompson additionally was requested about Curry first when he took the postgame podium.
“The guts on that man is unbelievable,” Thompson mentioned.
