COUNTER 1 AND 2 BOSTONS FREE

The Warriors lost for just the second time this postseason while turning the ball over fewer than 17 times.

Between the regular season and playoffs, the Celtics are 20-2 when posting an eFG% over 60%.

Boston finished with a 62.9 team effective field goal percentage – just 0.2 percentage points behind their highest mark of the playoffs, from Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals against Miami.

COUNTER 1 AND 2 BOSTONS FREE

With a total of just 31 free throws attempted by both teams (for reference, just five ahead of the 1997 record-low for a Finals game), both teams finished with low free throw rates in Game 1: 0.188 for Boston and 0.170 for Golden State – the third-lowest mark of the postseason for each teams.The Celtics make huge adjustments on both ends to storm back and take Game 1 of the Finals. A 92.3 rating marked his third-lowest showing of the postseason. Jordan Poole was the only player to play more than a minute and post an offensive efficiency below 100.Kevon Looney led all players in offensive rebounding percentage (20%) as he collected half of Golden State’s 12 offensive rebounds.White’s 44.3 rating was the highest of any player that played at least 20 minutes, with Jaylen Brown second at 27.3.

Derrick White finished with a net rating of 44.3 as the Celtics posted a 144.3 offensive rating and 100.0 defensive rating in his 32 minutes on the court.Tatum also had the best assist-to-turnover ratio at 6.5, only turning the ball over twice against those 13 assists. Jayson Tatum led all players in assist percentage, dishing out 37.1% of Boston’s field goals while he was on the court.For the Warriors, they had two players finish above 75% and both came off the bench: Otto Porter Jr. For the Celtics, five of those players finished with an effective field goal percentage above 75%: Al Horford (100%), Robert Williams III (100%), Payton Pritchard (100%), Marcus Smart (81.8%) and Derrick White (77.3%). Both teams had eight players play at least 10 minutes in Game 1.Jayson Tatum’s 13 assists in Game 1 mark a new NBA record for most assists in an NBA Finals debut! #NBA75 /krYVftiyiO Tatum’s 13 dimes were the most by a player making their Finals debut, surpassing the dozen dropped by John Stockton, Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas – not bad company to join. While Tatum was unable to knock down a shot, he was able to create scoring opportunities for his teammates as he dished out a career-high - regular season or playoffs - 13 assists in Game 1.Combined, the Celtics are 7-1 when dishing 33+ assists. Boston’s 33 assists were their highest of any game in this year’s playoffs they had seven games with 33 assists or more during the regular season.White posted a game-high plus-25 plus/minus in 32 minutes played off the bench in Game 1.Derrick White added five and Marcus Smart added four those three players combined for 15 of Boston’s 21 triples. While Tatum and Jaylen Brown combined to shoot just 3-for-13 (23.1%) from deep, the rest of the Celtics shot 18-for-28 (64.3%), including the aforementioned team-high six from Horford. Boston made 21 3-pointers in Game 2 – their second-highest total in any playoff game and the most ever in a Finals game.While Jayson Tatum (left chart) shot 3-for-17 (17.6%) in Game 1, his teammates (right chart) combined to shoot 40-68 (58.8%). That marked the first of his Finals record six 3-pointers in the opening quarter, breaking a record that Curry previously shared with Ray Allen and Kenny Smith. Stephen Curry scored the first basket of the 2022 NBA Finals with a 3-pointer off an offensive rebound by Kevon Looney (more on second-chance points later).Thursday night was the first time he’s ever made six 3-pointers in any of those 1,092 games. Horford has played 950 regular-season games and 142 playoff games in his career. Horford finished with a team-high 26 points on 9-for-12 shooting from the field and 6-for-8 from 3-point range. Horford played in 141 playoff games before reaching the NBA Finals ( the most in NBA history) and he made the most of his first game on the Finals stage.He has scored 130 fourth-quarter points - Curry is second with 117, Tatum third at 114 - on 45-for-72 shooting (62.5%) from the field and 20-for-30 (66.7%) from range. Brown entered the game as the 2022 playoff leader in fourth-quarter points and added to that lead on Thursday. Al Horford (11 points, 4-4 FGs, 2-2 3PM) and Jaylen Brown (10 points, 4-6 FGs, 2-3 3PM) combined for 21 of Boston’s 40 fourth-quarter points.Both teams led Game 1 by as many as 15 points.

Counter 1 and 2 bostons