San Francisco (AFP) – The Boston Celtics beat the Golden State Warriors 120-108 on Thursday in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, thanks to an astonishing fourth-quarter comeback led by Al Horford.
Stephen Curry's Warriors (34 points) had a 12-point lead entering the fourth quarter when they collapsed to watch the Celtics run past them on a 17-0 run in front of a stunned crowd at San Francisco's Chase Center (California).
His age is 36 making his debut in the Finals. Like the rest of the Celtics, the Dominican Al Horford had 26 points and six triples, making up for a discreet night by the star Jayson Tatum (12 points and 13 assists).
"It's been a lot of fun," Horford said of his big-stage debut. "I always try to play the right his debut, stay ready for the shot, and my guys found me tonight."
Shooting guard Jaylen Brown, with 10 of his 24 points at the start of the fourth quarter, and backup point guard Derrick White, with 21 points and five triples, also shone for the Celtics, who are competing for their first ring since 2008.
The Warriors, contesting their sixth Finals in the past eight years, controlled the scoreboard for most of the game, buoyed by a record first quarter from Stephen Curry.
At 34 years old, the point guard opened the Finals scoring with a triple and then added five more in the first quarter alone, which ended with 21 points.
Those six 3-pointers, in eight attempts, are the record for a quarter of a Finals game, while no one had managed to add 21 points in the first quarter of a title game in the last half-century.
Curry and his partners Klay Thompson (15 points) and Draymond Green (4 points and 11 rebounds), who are chasing their fourth ring together since 2015, will try to even the tie on Sunday again at the Chase Center.
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