Warriors' risky tactic sensationally backfires in historic blowout loss in Boston

The Golden State Warriors have suffered one of their worst defeats in franchise history, with a hard-to-believe first-half setting up a 140-88 loss to the Boston Celtics at TD Garden on Sunday.

The Celtics produced a simply remarkable 61-17 run over the last 18 minutes of the first-half, giving them a 44-point lead which is now the largest in franchise history. For the Warriors, the 82 points they conceded were the most in any half this season, while the 38 points they scored were simultaneously the lowest in any half.

A risky defensive tactic began the embarrassment for the Golden State Warriors in a blowout loss to the Boston Celtics on Sunday

The oddity of the game began early when Draymond Green, acting as the primary defender on Jaylen Brown, purposely chose to sag off the Celtics' All-Star in daring him to shoot from beyond the arc. It was a risky and strange tactic given Brown has shot over 36% from three for his career, and while he's down at 34.8% this season, many of those have come on much tougher contested attempts.

Brown made a pair of threes early, but at least the Warrior offense had things rolling to have the game tied at 21 in a high-scoring first six minutes. Yet Brown made another three triples immediately after a timeout, giving him 19 points in the first seven minutes which then propelled one of the craziest runs in NBA history.

Golden State had absolutely nothing going offensively, with Boston's pressure completely suffocating the often electric ball and player movement. That left too much isolation basketball for the Warriors who continued to struggle against the Celtics' size even without starting center Kristaps Porzingis.

Jonathan Kuminga had six points on 2-of-9 shooting, while Stephen Curry was limited to four points on 2-of-13 from the floor including 0-of-9 from three-point range. Having earlier been questionable for the game with a knee issue, Curry was rested after half-time alongside Green and Klay Thompson who was battling hamstring tightness.

The second-half was purely elementary, particularly after Joe Mazzulla subbed out his starters less than five minutes into the third-quarter. Boston went on the rack up 25 three-pointers at a 51% clip, tying the league record for made threes this season.

In contrast, Golden State shot just 7-of-41(17.1%) from beyond the arc. Lester Quinones led the team in scoring with 17 points to go with five rebounds, while Moses Moody and Jerome Robinson were the only others to score in double-figures.

The Warriors finish their four-game road-trip with a 3-1 record, with the huge loss dropping them back to 32-28 on the season. They will now get a much needed two days off before hosting the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday at Chase Center.