Celtics Demolish Golden State in Oakland, Hayward Explodes, 128-95

Steve Kerr and his Golden State Warriors were shredded to small pieces last night. The Boston Celtics inflicted them the heaviest loss at Oracle Arena since Kerr sat on the bench of this franchise.

It was 128-95 for the Celts, who destroyed the reigning champions in every aspect of the game.

“We did not go all out and it was embarrassing,” said Kerr after the game. “It looked to me like we were jogging up the floor.”

While the Warriors were “jogging” as Kerr stated, the Celts came flying into this contest, opening it with 11 straight points and keeping the hosts without points for more than three and a half minutes.

The home team recovered for a brief moment, but the Celtics continued to pound, mostly because of fantastic Gordon Hayward who dropped 19 of his 30 points in the first half.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1i2-YHPzY0

It was Hayward’s best performance of the season, hitting 12 of 16 shots from the field, four of them from downtown. For the third time this season the strong forward dropped 30 coming off the bench.

According to him, the Celts found the right “mojo” in the second half of the game against Houston Rockets which they lost a few days ago at TD Garden. Back then, his team almost made a huge comeback after being down 28 points.

“I felt like even though we ended up losing the Houston game, I felt like in the second half we’ve found a little bit of something,” Hayward told the reporters.

The Celtics were relentless for the whole 48 minutes. They didn’t decrease the intensity of play for one moment. Whether was that because of the recent losses suffered, or something else, after a long time this team looked like a title contender.

That is what Brad Stevens admitted at the press conference.

“We know we haven’t played like that enough but It’s encouraging as a reminder that we can.”

Hayward was doing his thing, Kyrie was dancing on the floor, while the youngsters, Tatum and Brown contributed enormously on both ends of the court.

“We put a lot of emphasis on being connected, being together, and we just haven’t been doing it, we’ve been doing a lot of talking and honestly it was finally about time to put some action to it,” Irving revealed the key of a huge victory.

He ended the night with 19 points and 11 assists, Brown added 18, while Tatum had 17. What really made the Celtics fired up was when he blocked Kevin Durant in the middle of the third period. Or better to say when he ripped the ball out of his hands on the backboard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-SQVB5w024

When mentioning the defensive efforts, it needs to be said that the guests disrupted Golden State’s usual rhythm, forcing them to make 21 turnovers, which is something uncharacteristic for the champions.

Also, what is without a doubt the reason for the home team’s bad performance, is the three-point shooting percentage. The Warriors made only 8 of 35 attempts from deep. Kevin Durant and DeMarcus Cousins missed five each, while Steph Curry hit 4 of 10.

The two-time MVP was the best scorer in his crew with 23 points, Durant had 18, and Cousins 10, and these three guys were the only ones with double-digit figures in the points column.

With 39 wins and 26 defeats, Boston is 5th in the East, 2.5 games behind the 76ers on fourth and 3 games behind Pacers on third place. If they continue to play like they did last night, the Celts have solid prospects of improving their position in the standings. They have three more games on tour through California. The first one already tonight against Sacramento, and two more in LA against Lakers and Clippers.

The Warriors are still on top of the West, with 44 wins and 20 losses. They are hosting their biggest rivals in the conference, Denver Nuggets, this Friday. Kerr and the boys have 1.5 games of advantage over Denver, which suggests that this clash has a huge importance.