POSTGAME

** It’s a final at Celtics 109, Warriors 95. INSTA-STAT OF THE NIGHT: Through 11 games (one-eighth of the season), the Warriors have allowed opponents an eFG% of 55.3 percent. In the 30 years since the NBA ushered in the 3-point shot, there have been exactly ZERO teams with defenses that were that bad over the course of a full season.

The closest? The 1984-85 Warriors, which gave up a 54.0 mark while being anchored by Purvis Short, Sleepy Floyd, Jerome Whitehead, Larry Smith and Lester Conner. Johnny Bach was the coach, and they finished 22-60.

Part of it is that the Warriors have already faced the top three teams in the league in eFG% and all of those games were on the road. But there’s an interesting correlation to Golden State’s victories and the opposition’s eFG% rank on the season:

The losses: home vs. No. 10 (HOU), road vs. No. 1 (PHX), home vs. No. 12 (LAC), road vs. No. 21 (SAC), road vs. No. 24 (IND), road vs. No. 17 (MIL), road vs. No. 3 (CLE), road vs. No. 2 (BOS).

The wins: home vs. No. 23 (MEM), home vs. No. 28 (MIN), road vs. No. 22 (NYK).

The upshot is that if you’re a team that can shoot worth a damn, you will get enough open shots to beat the Warriors. Regardless of what Golden State’s offense is doing.

** @Swopa: Both things are true. Randolph needs to make more of those shots to be effective, and Nelson needs to not have such a tight leash so as to pull Randolph when he misses one badly, as has happened plenty of times over the last season-plus.

FOURTH QUARTER

** The Celtics’ sloppy play is leaving the door open for the Warriors to mount a comeback.

** Raja Bell might be the most effective one-armed athlete since Pete Gray.

THIRD QUARTER

** Celtics push it out to double-digits as the Warriors have scored 13 points in nine-plus minutes this quarter. When their offense dries up and the 18-footers stop falling, the Warriors can’t force tough shots in the manner of top-notch defensive teams, and thus can’t maintain contact, score-wise.

** @Swopa: That’s why it says “making” them. Obviously, when Randolph misses them, he’s ineffective, as I’ve said approximately 400 times on this site.

** The Warriors are doing a great job of poaching lazy passes and finding the open man on the run-ahead. If they could just keep hold of the ball, this would be an eight-point game in the Warriors’ favor.

SECOND QUARTER

** Kevin Garnett should get 1 1/2 points on that 75-footer, just for the effort.

** Per Marcus Thompson II, via Twitter: Curry’s wrist is sore but says it’s no big deal. How long until Steph learns there is no such thing when it comes to Warriors injuries?

** Raja Bell leaps to his feet to plead Vladimir Radmanovic’s case on the charging call. Ronny Turiaf might have competition for the most passionate bench cheerleader…

** That’s a nice reverse layup from Stephen Curry, and it highlights the fact that Curry has a wrap on his right wrist that looks about the same size as the wrap Raja Bell has on his left wrist. Given that Bell is set to undergo surgery on his wrist which will probably end his season, should it be concerning that Curry has that much tape on his shooting hand? (He did not have any such tape on the wrist last night.)

** Well, when it takes Anthony Randolph three tries to score on a simple putback, no wonder the Warriors are putting up good rebounding numbers.

FIRST QUARTER

** Raja Bell off the bench? Guess it is an emergency.

** Great play by Paul Pierce to block Stephen Curry’s fastbreak layup. Better play by Corey Maggette to hustle downcourt, rather than assuming that Curry would put that in, and be in position to scoop up the offensive rebound.

** Anthony Randolph is taking and making more mid-range jumpers on this road trip, and Don Nelson is letting him. This would be a great sign for the Warriors , if both things were to happen regularly.

PREGAME

** It will be interesting to see what happens here with the Celtics’ vaunted D. For all of the problems, the selfishness, the injuries, all of it, the Warriors are still the No. 6 offense (going by the Offensive Ratings over at BKB-Ref.com. The Celtics, however, are No. 1 in the Defensive Rating leaderboard.
Something must give way tonight. I assume it will be the Warriors, disappearing in a hail of fatigue-induced jumpers concluding a series of one-pass-and-done possessions, but I could be wrong. I often am when it comes to this team, this year.