The free throws were 31 BOS to 15 GSW in a game Boston played horribly in for 36 minutes.
Stick a fork in this thing.
Yeah Boston shot twice the number of free throws (31 to 15), hit more three pointers (11 to 9), out-rebounded Golden State by 8 (47 to 39), and Curry didn't make a single three pointer, and Boston lost by ten.
I don't think a single one of us would have thought that Boston could possibly lose a game with those four things being true. But it happened.
Key stat #1:
Boston 18 turnovers
Golden State 6 turnovers
Key stat #2 (as a function of key stat #1):
Boston 75 FGA (and 31 makes...41.3%)
Golden State 88 FGA (and 41 makes...46.6%)
You shoot 13 more field goal attempts and make 10 more, you're going to win a lot of games unless you get killed from three and/or at the FT line. GS, despite being outshot from the line by 16 attempts (fouls were 28 to 16 in favor of Boston), only made 8 fewer, because of GS's great FT shooting and Boston's woeful FT shooting. And both teams were bad from three (other than Boston's 8 in a row stretch), so GS only made two fewer threes (9 to 11), so they didn't get drowned in a sea of Boston threes.
Turnovers. Turnovers. Turnovers. Turnovers. Turnovers. Turnovers.
The Celtics are literally giving this series to Golden State with the turnovers.
Boston Turnovers
Celtic wins: 13, 12 (12.5 avg)
Celtic losses: 19, 16, 18 (17.7 avg)
Golden State Turnovers
Celtic wins: 14, 17 (15.5 avg)
Celtic losses: 12, 16, 6 (11.3 avg)
So when the Celtics have lost, they've fumbled away 6.4 more possessions per game - possessions where they didn't even get a shot up because of a turnover. At the shooting percentages these teams are at, that's roughly 3 made baskets (out of 6.4 attempts) they're sacrificing. If two of those are twos and one is a three, that's five points per game they're just lighting on fire and throwing away.
It's especially problematic when the turnovers are live ball turnovers and lead directly to GS points, which has happened a lot in those games.
So we're back to this equation: When the Celtics take care of the ball (and it doesn't even have to be GREAT...it just has to be DECENT), they win. When they are sloppy, they lose. Obviously the quality of defense matters, and the officiating matters - you can get knocked off the ball and no foul is called and it's a turnover. But regardless...they can't turn it over and hope to win. GS is just too good for that.