NBA finals Game 2: Boston Celtics v Golden State Warriors – live!

Preamble

You can’t predict basketball. When the Golden State Warriors built up a 12-point fourth-quarter lead on the Boston Celtics, I predicted thusly: “So, can Boston make up a 12-point deficit? Not impossible, but Tatum is going to need a big game and the defense will have to be flawless.”

Well, I was half right. The Celtics did indeed have to play flawless defense, holding the most potent offense in the Western Conference to a mere 16 points, but Tatum didn’t score a single point from there on out. In fact, he only scored 12 points on Thursday, the same amount of assists that he dished out (credit Tatum for not letting an off shooting night from preventing him from helping out his team in other ways).

So, the Warriors lost a double-digit lead late, at home, on a day where they had done all they could do to contain their opponent’s best player. Now they’re down 0-1 in an NBA Finals where nearly everybody (including this writer) had them as favorites. That means today’s Game 2 is the biggest game they’ve had to play since Kevin Durant was still in the lineup.

So, do they come back tonight with a huge win or do the Celtics ride the momentum of their shocking Game 1 win and take a stranglehold on the 2022 NBA season. I have my own predictions, but I’ll wait and let you guess what they could be. Let me just say that this postseason is like the final season of “Better Call Saul.” It’s not going to go the way any of us think.

What you can predict is that we’ll use your thoughts, questions and/or concerns throughout this liveblog. You can email them to hunter.felt.freelance@theguardian.com or tweet them to @HunterFelt and we’ll post them throughout today’s game. It’s Game 2 of the 2022 NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Golden State Warriors at San Francisco’s Chase Center. Opening tip is scheduled at sometime after 8:00 pm EST but we’ll be back well before then with further updates, predictions and an occasional amusing timewaster.