Draymond Green ‘Shocked’ Celtics Pulled Starters Early in Game 2
The Golden State Warriors evened the NBA Finals at one apiece with a dominant 107-88 victory over the Boston Celtics on Sunday night at the Chase Center.
Stephen Curry dropped 29 points while Jordan Poole had 17 (including an insane half court three-pointer to cap off a huge third quarter run) as Golden State cruised to a dub in Game 2. Down 23 points entering the fourth quarter, Boston eventually went down 29 points with 10:45 minutes remaining. Celtics head coach Ime Udoka then elected to pull his starters at the ensuing timeout.
Draymond Green says he was surprised to see the Celtics’ first year head coach “pull the plug” with nearly an entire quarter to play.
“Going into the fourth quarter up 23, all it takes is one blow from there,” Green said on “The Draymond Green Show.” “You throw one punch, and that’s kind of it. And that’s what happened. We threw a punch and went up 29, and then they pulled the plug.
“I was a little shocked to see them pull the plug so early. I do understand it and respect it. But I just did not expect to come back out of that timeout and (see) them pull the plug.”
Boston starters Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart and Al Horford never re-entered the game as Udoka suffered his first Finals loss as head coach.
Despite a perplexed reaction to Udoka’s decision, Green did praise the Celtics reserves, who actually outscored the Warriors by four in the fourth quarter.
“That is a championship organization and those guys didn’t come in and quit,” Green said. “They continued to fight and battle, and we had to continue to close the game out.”
Boston will get a much-needed boost from its home crowd as the series will now head back to the Bean for Games 3 and 4.
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