NBA games

In Game 4, the Warriors went on a late 10-0 run (between 5:18 and 1:32 remaining in the game) while the Celtics missed all 6 of their shots.

And after a Looney layup (when the Celtics got the ball out of Curry’s hands), the Celtics had their sixth and final clutch possession of Game 4. The Celtics also had multiple possessions earlier in Game 4 where they just weren’t very purposeful and settled for bad shots. Turnovers and rebounds have been a part of that, but shooting is the most important aspect of this game. The following possession (clutch possession No. 4), it was Green doing the same thing. Brown kicked out to Smart and Green made a huge effort to contest the shot as best he could: But Thompson saw what was happening, switched off of Brown in the corner, and contested Tatum at the rim without fouling: Flare screens (for multiple players) have become a big part of the Celtics’ offense in this series. The Celtics (plus-7.4) were 1.9 points per 100 possessions better than the Golden State Warriors (plus-5.5) in the regular season, but the Western Conference champs have home-court advantage in this series because they won two more games. Brooklyn, of course, had one of the worst defenses in the playoffs. But by beating their opponents so decisively (20 of the 28 wins were by double-digits, 15 were by 20 points or more), the Celtics didn’t really resolve their clutch issues. And over those four games, Boston scored 25 points on 21 clutch possessions ( 119 per 100), with Jayson Tatum’s Game 1 buzzer-beater being the highlight. That was the third-biggest differential in that regard in the 26 years for which we have clutch data.