Celtics at Warriors
The Boston Celtics are in the midst of their first road winning streak against Western Conference teams in the Brad Stevens era but are about to run into a buzzsaw. The Celtics will attempt to improve to 3-1 on their road trip when they visit the NBA-best Golden State Warriors on Sunday. The Warriors are winners of 18 straight home games – the last 11 by at least 13 points – and Klay Thompson is on fire.
Thompson scored an NBA-record 37 points in the third quarter of Friday’s 126-101 win over Sacramento and finished with a career-high 52 points while going 11-of-15 from 3-point range. “I was one of the luckiest NBA players ever to play with Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan and David Robinson - some of the greatest players ever,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr told reporters in reference to Thompson’s third quarter. “As many spectacular things that Michael did, which he did nightly, I never saw him do that. It was reminiscent of Michael, because it was sort of otherworldly.” Boston had dropped 24 straight road games against Western Conference opponents before knocking off Portland and Denver in the last two games.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, CSN New England (Boston), CSN Bay Area (Golden State)
ABOUT THE CELTICS (15-26): The Celtics grabbed a 90-89 win at the Trail Blazers when Evan Turner hit a go-ahead 3-pointer in the final seconds and edged the Nuggets 100-99 thanks to a pair of go-ahead 3-pointers and a fadeaway 20-footer with 25 seconds left from Avery Bradley. “I feel like everyone is getting out of that selfishness and it’s really helping our team out a lot because when you play that way, now you’re playing into your roles and everyone’s out there and just playing and not thinking,” Bradley told reporters. The date with Golden State marks the start of another road back-to-back for Boston, which will play four games in five days in four different states before finishing out the six-game trip at Minnesota on Wednesday.
ABOUT THE WARRIORS (35-6): Stephen Curry was the leading vote-getter among the All-Star starters announced on Thursday and gets most of the headlines for Golden State, but he could only stare in disbelief with the rest of the crowd on Friday. “It was kind of a blur,” Thompson told reporters of his third-quarter barrage. “I wish I could go back and enjoy it some more, but moments like that go by really fast. It’s something I’ll never forget and something I’ll tell my grandkids about one day.” Thompson went 13-of-13 from the field in the third, including an NBA-record 9-of-9 from 3-point range.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Celtics C Kelly Olynyk (sprained right ankle) was sent back to Boston and is expected to be out at least the rest of the road trip.
2. Thompson has hit multiple 3-pointers in a career-long and active NBA-best 20 straight games.
3. Golden State has scored at least 115 points in five straight and 10 of the last 12 games.