Boston Celtics NBA Finals: C's 2 Wins From Title After Game 3 Response

BOSTON — Al Horford said the moment he stepped on the TD Garden parquet he knew there was no place better to be than back home in Boston in the NBA Finals.

The 15-year NBA veteran said he felt the excitement pulsating through the city and TD Garden crowd well before the opening tip of Wednesday night's Game 3 and that he and his Celtic teammates used that as fuel to power them to a 116-100 victory and 2-1 series lead against Golden State.

"The energy from our fans was just contagious," Horford said in a postgame news conference. "I felt it going in when I did my shooting an hour-and-a-half before the game.

"As soon as I saw that, I was like: 'Yeah, it's going to be different tonight.'"

The Celtics raced out to a 17-point lead, withstood a punishing third quarter Warrior rally when Golden State briefly took a one-point edge, then pulled away in their first home NBA Finals game in 12 years.

"They stayed with us even through that," Horford said of the fans amid the Golden State run. "Because sometimes things can get shaky. But we stayed right with and just locked in. We didn't panic and just continued to play."

The Celtics head into Friday night's Game 4 in Boston (9 p.m. EDT) now just two victories away from the franchise's record 18th NBA championship.

The Celtics trailed, 83-82, with three minutes left in the third quarter before regaining a six-point lead heading to the fourth quarter and holding Golden State to just 11 points in the final 12 minutes.

"It was just to be poised, stay calm," said Marcus Smart, who finished the night with 24 points, seven rebounds and five assists. "We've been here before. They're a really good team. They are going to go on runs. But so are we.

"We just had to bore down and go on our run."

It was a much different story from Game 2 in San Francisco when the Warriors used a similar third quarter spurt to pull away for a 107-88 victory.

"That left a bad taste in our mouths," Smart said. "Because of what we hang our hat on — effort on the defensive end and being a physical team. It definitely woke us up a little bit.

"If we were going to come out here and play, the last thing when we left that court that we wanted to say was that we weren't physical enough. And it worked out for us."

Jaylen Brown scored 17 of his 27 points in the first quarter to go with nine rebounds and five assists, Jayson Tatum scored 26 points to go with six rebounds and nine assists and Horford had 11 points, eight rebounds and six assists for Boston.

Steph Curry scored 31 points and Klay Thompson had 25, but the outspoken Draymond Green was held to two points in 35 minutes before fouling out as he drew the ire of TD Garden fans throughout the game.

"Classy, very classy," Golden State coach Steve Kerr said of Boston fans who engaged in an expletive-filled chant toward Green early in the game.

Here is the remaining schedule for the 2022 NBA Finals:

Game 1 — Boston 120, at Golden State 108

Game 2 — At Golden State 107, Boston 88

Game 3 — At Boston 116, Golden State 100

Game 4 — Golden State at Boston, Friday, June 10, 9 p.m.

Game 5 — Boston at Golden State, Monday, June 13, 9 p.m.

Game 6 (if necessary) — Golden State at Boston, Thursday, June 16, 9 p.m.

Game 7 (if necessary) — Boston at Golden State, Sunday, June 19, 8 p.m.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)