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Stephen Curry breaks out in Game 4 of the NBA Finals with 43 points (7-14 3PM).
BOSTON — The NBA Finals are all level after the Golden State Warriors ended a great Game 4 on Friday with a 21-6 run to claim a 107-97 win.
It was the Stephen Curry Show at TD Garden that saw the all-time 3-point leader score 43 points, his third-highest total in 132 playoff games of his career (losing the first two – 47 and 44). The Celtics, as they’ve done with all series, chose not to double Curry… and they paid for it. The two-time Kia MVP shot 14-to-26, including 7-to-14 from 3-point range.
One stat stood out from the rest as the Warriors leveled the streak at two games apiece and regained home field advantage.
The basics
| game 4 | GSW | BOS |
|---|---|---|
| Points | 107 | 97 |
| possessions | 96 | 96 |
| OffRtg | 111.5 | 101.0 |
| eFG% | 52.2% | 48.8% |
| FTA/FGA | 0.165 | 0.165 |
| TO% | 16.7% | 16.7% |
| OREB% | 38.5% | 26.4% |
OffRtg = Points scored per 100 possessions
eFG % = (FGM + (0.5 * 3PM)) / FGA
TO% = Revenue per 100 possessions
OREB% = % of available offensive rebounds
The stats
25 for 51 — Stephen Curry’s 3-point shooting in the series.
the context
That’s 49.0%, which would be Curry’s third-highest 3-point percentage among his 26 playoff series. His 6.3 3-pointer points per game would be the second-highest average for any player in a playoff series, surpassed only by the 6.5 per game he averaged as the Warriors defeated the Portland Trail Blazers in the Westerns Finals Conference 2019 defeated. (The record for a total of 3s in a streak is 36 set by Donovan Mitchell in the 2021 Western Conference Semifinals.)
On Friday, Curry was only 2-for-8 from beyond the arc in the first half but was 4-for-5 in the third quarter and lost his only 3-point attempt in the fourth, moving the Warriors up 1-to-six: 42 to go. They were five points down with 6 1/2 minutes to go but then found nine of their last 11 possessions against what was the best defensive team in the league to date.
After being kept under a point per possession (49-51) in the first half, the Warriors were averaging 58 points on just 45 possessions (129-100) after halftime. The Celtics have outplayed the Warriors in the first, second and fourth quarters of this series, but the total of the four third quarters is Warriors 136, Celtics 87.
Curry has 52 points (and is up 50) in those four third quarters after shooting 12-to-20 from deep. He has amassed 137 points over the four games in the Finals, nearly double any of his teammates (Klay Thompson has 69).
In the series, the Warriors fired 48.1% of their shots from 3-point range, up from 41.5% in the first three rounds. Three is greater than two and Curry’s 49% from beyond the arc is like 73.5% in shooting.
Pay more
The final: Traditional | Advanced | 4 factors | Player | player shooting | lineups
Encounters: Warriors Attack | Celtics on offense
Warriors Playoffs: Team Statistics | Advanced Splits | Player Stats | player shooting | lineups
Celtics Playoffs: Team Statistics | Advanced Splits | Player Stats | player shooting | lineups
John Schuhmann is a senior statistics analyst for NBA.com. You can email him here, his archive can be found here and Follow him on Twitter.
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