SAN FRANCISCO – The thing about being a three-time champion, playing in your sixth NBA Finals, with three future Hall of Famers, is that everything about the moment feels familiar, expected, comfortable.
It's your advantage on this stage. Until it isn't. Until the opponent with zero championships and zero Finals and a bunch of young, still-developing stars blitzes you for 10 straight minutes on your home court. And then, all that familiarity and experience feel like a tattered, moth-riddled security blanket.
Sure, the Golden State Warriors have been down in playoff series before, and knocked off kilter in the Finals before. But not often. And never like this.
The Boston Celtics—younger, stronger, spryer, and fueled by a three-point barrage that left even Stephen Curry awestruck—thoroughly dominated the fourth quarter here Thursday night, seizing a 120-108 win to open the Finals and putting the Warriors in the rarest of situations: facing an 0-1 deficit in a series.
“It's not ideal,” Curry said…