Wednesday night, Jayson Tatum and his Boston Celtics almost pulled off a miraculous comeback in the second half against the Golden State Warriors at Chase Center. But Stephen Curry, returning from an ankle injury, helped Golden State hold on long enough to secure an eventual 118-112 victory.

Things looked good for the Celtics early on. After a hot 14-3 start in Boston, the Warriors responded with a brutal 30-15 run, capped by back-to-back threes from Kyle Anderson, while disrupting the Celtics’ rhythm with stellar defense. The Warriors would have a 32-16 advantage in the second quarter for a 51-40 halftime lead. A 41-31 Celtics third frame put Boston within a point, but a flurry of plays around the basket late (from free throws to putbacks) helped Golden State ice the W in the fourth.

Curry scored 27 points on 8-of-17 shooting from the field (4-of-9 from deep) and 7-of-7 shooting from the foul line, had nine assists, grabbed seven rebounds, had four steals and blocked one. shot.

With the win, the Warriors improved to 7-1 this year, while dropping the Celtics to 7-2 on the season.

Boston was without All-Star small forward Jaylen Brown and former All-Star center Kristaps Porzingis, while Golden State was missing bench guards Brandin Podziemski and De’Anthony Melton.

Here are our takeaways:

Golden State has looked to balance its shooting with size and defense in the absence of former brother Klay Thompson, now with the Dallas Mavericks. Steve Kerr has shuffled his starting lineup a bit this season, moving impending restricted free agent forward Jonathan Kuminga to a backup role on the team.

Its current five starters, Curry, shooting guard Moses Moody (who, unlike Kuminga, agreed to a rookie-scale contract extension this summer), small forward Andrew Wiggins, power forward Draymond Green and Second-year center Trayce Jackson-Davis are an intriguing blend of shooting and size. That means this summer’s expensive free agents — Buddy Hield, Kyle Anderson and De’Anthony Melton (although Melton was injured in that game) — have come off the bench. Hield added a particularly prolific microwave scoring dimension to the club’s offense. 2024 All-Rookie Team guard Brandin Podziemski was also switched between the bench and Kerr’s starting units. Big man Kevon Looney and guard Gary Payton II have also settled into bench roles.

Suddenly the team is deep, but not the kind of star-laden team it was during Curry’s MVP prime. It’s all about Curry, but these new pieces fit in well with the existing additions.

This is quite a different team than the 2022 club that beat Boston in a hard-fought six-game encounter in the NBA Finals. The Celtics’ 2024-25 vintage, now filled with Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis and that post-championship burst, is better, tougher, deeper and more confident than its 2023-24 incarnation. A respectable road loss tonight, without Porzingis or Brown, is hardly an indicator of how either team would fare in a series. Boston clearly has what it takes to repeat. It will be interesting to see if the Warriors get in their way.

Joe Mazzulla’s Celtics dominated the Warriors on Wednesday night, hitting a whopping 54 triples (they made 19) to Golden State’s meager 34 (they made 14, for a team-best 41.2 percent). This hyper-modern approach was ultimately undone by a huge Warriors advantage in points scored in the paint, 52-36.

Even with Al Horford returning to his starting lineup, Joe Mazzulla opted to keep Queta in his starting five. He moved Tatum down to accommodate the young big man, who jumped to the fifth spot, and Horford, who started at power forward. Queta rewarded Mazzulla’s decision by outplaying Horford. He scored 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field and 2-of-4 from the foul line, grabbing eight rebounds, blocking two shots and recording a +13 in 28:09 of action, the only plus. least among Boston’s starters.

All-NBA Celtics forward Jayson Tatum led all scorers with 32 points on 10-of-20 shooting from the floor (5-of-10 from long range) and 7-of-9 shooting from the charity stripe. Defensive guard Derrick White had 26 points on 8-of-19 shooting from the field (7-of-16 from deep) and 3-of-3 shooting from the foul line, plus six rebounds. Point guard Payton Pritchard, continuing his strong play of late, had 15 points, while the aforementioned Horford and Queta each scored in double figures.

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