The Boston Celtics and the Golden State Warriors were the two hottest teams in the NBA coming into Thursday night. The Celtics were in the midst of a 13-game winning streak, while the Warriors had ripped off seven wins in a row. Between that and the fact that it was one of two games on the evening, all eyes were on the matchup between the two juggernauts.
Through essentially two and a half quarters, Golden State looked like it was going to get the job done. With just under five minutes remaining in the third quarter, the Warriors had a 17-point lead, and it looked like the 66-49 deficit was going to be too much for Boston to overcome.
But then the Celtics caught fire — surprisingly enough, almost entirely with Kyrie Irving on the bench — and managed to take a 68-66 lead with 53 seconds left in the frame. Here is an illustration of what Boston managed to do during that time, watch as the Warriors lead just melts away in no time.
https://twitter.com/HPbasketball/status/931365812232798208
In total, Boston managed to close out the frame on a 19-2 run. It is always something to watch a team get that hot, but it’s insane to watch a team do that against the defending champions. This is just not something that happens to the Warriors, and it’s even crazier when you remember that the Celtics did this without getting much from Irving while they were on the run.
The @celtics close out the 3rd quarter on a 19-2 run on @NBAonTNT! pic.twitter.com/jUaS8CMwR4
— NBA (@NBA) November 17, 2017
Neither team was able to get much separation during the fourth quarter, and the Celtics were able to get their 14th win in a row with a 92-88 victory. There’s a lot of the season left, obviously, but if a league-high winning streak wasn’t able to silence Boston’s doubters — for example, Charles Barkley said during halftime that he wasn’t sure this team scared any of the Eastern Conference’s elite — perhaps a ridiculous comeback against the Warriors will do the trick.
